Classes start back up next week, here’s an excerpt from my prep-reading, too good not to share, from The Poet as Fool and Priest by Sigurd Burckhardt:
”What sustains him in this perilous balance is the love of the Word in its absolute integrity. As Othello demonstrates, that is no easy matter; the most sacred thing is also the most vulnerable. The poet would be much safer if he did not commit himself to the Word, but in ironic detachment exploited the infinite ambiguities of speech. Or he could retreat to the safety of a socio-religious order, give up his claim to verbal priesthood and turn " mouthpiece." Both roads have been taken; but they lead to self-abnegation. The poet as a fool must be a corrupter of words, a punster, rhymster, verbal trickster, for there is no other way to break the disgraceful bonds into which words have fallen. But if he is not also, and ultimately, priest-if he is not a parson disguised as a fool rather than a fool disguised as a parson-speech will be " wanton " rather than sacramental…”