Ph: Faith: In My Opinion... Poem by Brian Johnston

Brian Johnston
January 5,2014

The story of this poem I think is interesting. The first title was 'I'm convinced that...' and changed only after the poem was finished to 'In my opinion' (softer and thus better) . The first four lines came easily and quite spontaneously in response to a friend's poem, the only real alterations came later as the 10,9,10,9 structure asserted itself and became the model for the rest of the poem. The next three lines were

Certainty's certainly a fools game
Questions the air the soul breathes
joy and pain are what make feelings real

I had tied the first two lines together in my mind and this really was a problem. But there was no rhyme scheme presenting itself and I was frustrated. Then a potential fourth line came...

Faith probably means we're not lazy

My first thought was is this even true? I tried it out as a third line

Certainty's certainly a fools game
Questions the air the soul breathes
Faith probably means we're not lazy
Joy and pain are what make feelings real

Then inspiration, I moved the new line into 2nd position and now I got it. The new line was the 1st lines partner. The 1st line was what made its meaning clear. Moving the 'Questions' line into 3rd place didn't weaken it at all. It suggested the change to 'True faith...' and I realized then 'True faith' must always have questions re. Karen Armstrong's great quote. Things were really coming together. So now I started thinking about rhyme scheme again. Both game and lazy seemed like good candidates. It was when I thought of the rhyme crazy with lazy that things started popping. Magically on the page appeared

Certainty's certainly a fools game
True faith probably means we're not lazy
Questions the air the soul breathes
Joy and pain are what make feelings real
Our longing for God makes us crazy

Yes that's exactly what I wanted Lora to hear. All I needed was a last line and then lighting struck... Blame, game, that sounds promising!

Certainty's certainly a fools game
True faith probably means we're not lazy
Questions the air the soul breathes
Joy and pain are what make feelings real
Our longing for God makes us crazy
It's God's longing for us that's to blame.

I couldn't believe it. Fellow poets, just look what the discipline of rhyme and meter has brought forth. Ideas that I'm convinced I could never have expressed without them. The rest was just clean up. Hopefully I didn't do too much damage in my pursuit of perfection! ?

Does anyone besides me think this exploration of the creative process is worth sharing? Please encourage me if you would like to see more.