I would lay money on the fact that poetry is not one of your great interests. For most people, reading poetry is about as fun as going to the dentist.

Yet I have been thinking about some great words from my good friend Justin Moffatt recently, in a blog post entitled 'We Need the Poets':

The Bible is not just facts, and it’s not just history. It’s not all argument, and it’s not all logic. It’s not a manifesto, and it’s certainly not a tract. It is full of wisdom, poetry and songs. If we desire to be true to the Bible, then we need to re-find the poets, the wisdom writers, and the prophets.

It is one thing to say: ‘Be faithful to your wife’. But it is another to muse with the writer of Proverbs: ‘Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe.’

So we need a few things: We need wonder, not just exegesis. We need awe of God, not just exposition. We need insight, not just information. We need wisdom, not just your points. We need to wrestle with the Psalmists, and not just proclaim their certainty. We don’t just need to ‘think Christianly’, we need to feel it too. We need Orthokardia.

Justin's point is that poetry is trying to do something very similar to what preachers are trying to do. Poetry overlaps hugely with theology. Reading great poetry sensitizes us - and makes us better readers of the Word of God, no doubt.

Two books I have been reading have reminded me of the power and the blessing and the necessity of poetry - especially for people who would be good readers of Scripture.

First, Louise Bogan before, for example.

Second, E.D. Hirsh's book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry might be just what you need to get going with poetry. It's a magnificent introduction to poetry, but it is so much more than a 'dummies guide'. He introduces the reader to the whole world of poetry - perhaps you'll start a life-long love affair with a poet's work, at Hirsch’s invitation?