The role of the poet took on new power as we discussed the "religious consciousness" it establishes in situations. By making us aware of our surroundings, and of ourselves, the poet acts as a narrator to situations and calls us into such an awareness. A poet, then, is a seer, who can make us aware of ourselves and how we appear to those around us, and in a more transcendent sense, it can make us aware of the "(w)holy other." The "w" is there because this other is an entirely separate consciousness that, through poetry, we understand is observing us. But, the other can also be holy, especially in the case of prophetic writings found in the Tanakh. To describe it another way, we talked about Graci's concept that "every animal is in the world like water in water." Animals act on instinct primarily, there is not perceived conflict when a snake eats a rabbit. Humans live just like this, until poetry unlocks this religious consciousness within us. It is this idea that I would like to respond to form a personal experience.
Just last week I was in my apartment with my roommate and we were joking around as usual in our kitchen. Suddenly, as I reached out my hand I became profoundly aware of myself. I saw my arm and observed that it was my arm. I owned that. I made the decision to move it to the place it now held in the space between it and my face, and my roommate. I was aware that every decision I had ever made culminated in this moment, where I was at college, studying philosophy, living in this apartment. I looked in the mirror and reflected on the culmination of my life and where it had lead me. I am a living, advancing monument of myself.
This experience demonstrates the unique power of that the religious consciousness can have. It stirs up a sense of mindfulness about where and who we have become by making us uniquely aware of our own soul and our surroundings.
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