Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis notes something that made me hit my head and go “D’oh!” All scripture (even the prose bits) is akin to poetry. Even the bits that are simply reporting something that really happened are akin to poetry, because God is the author of creation. As a poet uses images to convey something deeper, so God uses events to convey something deeper. You can’t get away from it.

And as an analytically minded math-major turned software developer, I have not much taste for poetry, nor much patience for it. If they want to say something why can’t they just say it clearly?

Wait! Please don’t try to answer that. I’m not going to argue that poetry is a waste of time; I know better, intellectually at least, and I regard my lack of taste for poetry to be a personal flaw. I’m confident that there’s a there there, so to speak, at least in the non-feculent 10% of poetry predicted by Sturgeon’s Law.* I just don’t enjoy it.

But I want to hunger and thirst for God’s word. And if there’s a sense that God’s word is akin to poetry, then it would appear that there are some important and relevant skills that I’m lacking.

Sigh.
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* And how do you figure out which 10% is non-feculent? Alas, you have to wade through a lot of—but I digress.