Many years ago at a music appreciation class my teacher suggested that music was ‘noise with rhythm meant to be listened to’. I wondered at the time what difference there was between this and language?
Meaning comes in many forms and some of them are not apparent to reason, they flow into us like an osmotic language. Poetry makes use of natural rhythms within words and the flow of the sounds translating thoughts into a meaning others can share. And though we have inner thoughts and inner music it is the sharing that is so important.
Behind the words are centuries of development and all the vocal chords that have sounded the words before us in various dialects to intone a similar meaning. The aching necessity to communicate, the striving to be understood and the importance of the words being remembered.
Across continents and centuries we are all Romans, all Africans, all sailing upon reed boats or stepping out onto unknown moons. As Karl Sagan said we are made of the stuff of stars. Meaning pervades everything we do. Everything we say. Our words are not just ours but everyone’s, our thoughts not alone but playing in a crowd.
Poetry is the bow that plays the human race, and gives a resonance that other alien races will understand more readily than all the other things we will ever make.