The Poetic Spirit

Since I was a young man, I have always enjoyed both reading and composing poems. I have long thought that the revival of the poetic spirit could serve as a fundamental source of power for the expansion of human hope.

At the Tenth International Poets' Convention held in 1988, in response to a request I presented a paper-entitled "Poetry: The Hope of Humankind." I am inclined to think that poetry can be defined as the state of mind that links the individual, society and the Universe.

The invisible laws of the Universe, the laws of the ever-changing real world called human society, and the principles of the human heart all intermingle and pulse together, unfolding a grand drama of life against the backdrop of infinite time and space. I believe that the poetic spirit opens the door into a world throbbing with the profound rhythms of this universal life and presses in on the very source of creative energy.

When we encounter a superior work of art, whether it be a poem, a painting or a piece of music, we experience an overflowing of emotion and a sense of fulfillment, a feeling of the expansion of the self, as if we had soared up to the heavens in accord with the subtle rhythms of the universe.

__Daisaku Ikeda
Buddhist Philosopher, Poet Laureate