Learning Poetry Like Eugene Peterson

A favorite blogger of mine, Fernando Gros, linked to a post of Eugene Peterson quotes the other day that are well worth reading. Peterson is a hero pastor theologian to many of us. Here are three I particularly enjoyed:

“Children are the best poets up until they get it bred out of them by about sixth grade. One five-year-old poet said, “God who is high and God who is low, help us Lord, who are below.”

“The work of the poet is to change the way we see the world, to change our imaginations.”

“The way of writing that is most congenial to the pastor is poetry. We’re inundated with a church world that is very programmatic, full of methods and how to do it. I’ve always felt uncomfortable with that. There’s almost a denial of the work of the Holy Spirit.”

From the Wise Words of Eugene Peterson