The Power of Poetry - Essay by jack mothershed

THE POWER OF POETRY

The movie "Babe" is to poetry as Spiral Dynamics is to the quantum leap into hyperconsciousness. It is integral.

What is Spiral Dynamics? Don Beck, using the ground work of Clare Graves, popularized a way of looking at the periods of development of human consciousness. It says there are eight general categories, or memes, of consciousness. Human history is the progression through those eight memes. But just as our old amphibian brain is still very much a part of our physiology, so are our older consciousness memes still a part of our psycho-social constitution. The eight memes comprise two tiers. The first six memes comprise the first tier. The second is reached in a quantum leap across hyperspace into an integral realm of understanding.

Ordinarily, I am extremely reluctant to take any pleasure in the personification of animals. Probably because I see it as an insult to animals. "Babe" is an exception because it makes the quantum leap from simply using the personification of animals for human amusement to the use of personification of animals for human edification. Simultaneously, this human edification is not denominational, nor exclusive. Almost every brand of religion and self improvement has used "Babe" as an allegory without demeaning or insulting any other.

Spiral Dynamics does this as well. The essence of spiral dynamics is that satori, salvation, wholeness, the quantum leap, happens when a) one observes the six memes on the first tier without a judgmental attitude, b) when one realizes that each of the memes has a usefulness, c) when one ceases to embrace one's main meme in a "my" meme, "my" team, "my" tribe, way.

"Babe" establishes this non-judgmental attitude from the beginning by eliminating national and religious identities (almost). "Babe" characters are clearly definable as examples of memes without demonizing them.

"The way things are is the way things are" is the setting, indicating in meme terms a blue conformity that is religious about order, rule, propriety, status quo. Observe how this meme authorizes its propriety by virtue of its existence. The way things are. Observe that Farmer Hoggett is very good at exploiting the way things are. In fact, Farmer Hoggett takes great comfort in the way things are. However, Farmer Hoggett (I am not sure we ever find out what his first name is) does not let the way things are prevent his making the quantum leap to the realization that he can make a sheep dog out of a pig. The key to an integral consciousness. Farmer Hoggett listens to "little ideas that tickle and nag and won't go away and shouldn't be ignored for in them lie the seeds of destiny."

Everywhere in "Babe" we see this blue level meme of conformity. The way things are. The codes - "bah ram ewe to your breed, to your clan, be true." Even the sheep have IDENTITY. Protected by their code. Every animal has a function, a use. For some, that function is food.

The blue meme deals in "cold" facts. The narrator in "Babe" tells us that "the sheep spoke slowly to the dog because it is a 'cold' fact that dogs are stupid." and "the dog spokely slowly to the sheep because it is a 'cold' fact that sheep are stupid." Mrs. Hoggett is the classic blue - so caught up in her rituals, her perfect order, her recipes and blue ribbons. The only thing she can do with revelation is faint.

It is the animals whose function is food who are making trouble and trying to change things. Babe wants to be a sheep pig. The duck wants to be a rooster. This brings to mind the old joke about the difference between a pig and a chicken and "ham 'n eggs." The chicken is involved, the pig is committed. The chicken will lay eggs, the pig will die.

In Spiral Dynamics terms the duck is in the orange meme. The duck is an individual. The duck is not hindered by place, conformity, clan, religion, rules. "I like that rule. That is a really good rule. But this is bigger than rules." The orange meme is the meme of the entrepreneur, the lone wolf, the empire builder, the way finder. Notice that ironically the duck's destiny, the destiny the duck is trying to escape is his participation in a recipe called "duck a l'orange." In the thinking of the duck, "one duck doesn't add up to much in the grand scheme of things but I'm all I've got."

But the duck gets his order and orders from Rex (king) but really the dog who 'would' be king. Rex is only the king in his small domain. Kings always surround themselves with manufactured reasons for their royalty. This is the red level, the hero level of Spiral Dynamics thinking. Without the conformist blue, the red hero is totally unnecessary. But the blue, whose time is occupied with all the order and ritual and circling of wagons needs a hero. The sheep need a hero. Mrs. Hoggett needs an external authority. We had a saying in corporate life. The expert is someone from fifty miles away with a black bag. To Mrs. Hoggett, the only answer to any disturbances of the status quo is a magical hero figure remote to the scene. The veterinarian who is so steeped in his normality and stock answers that he is ineffectual and just provides the standard priestly palaver.

All the while the real hero is the master of reason, the egalitarian, be fair to everyone, tinkering, thinkering guy who sleeps in her bed every night, the boomer, content that his world is so well advanced. Discrimination is nonexistent. The sheep are sheared. Thanksgiving dinner is guaranteed and all is well.

It is this smug satisfaction, this pride in the automatic closing gate, the sharpness of the slaughtering knives, that is Farmer Hoggett's failure. He isn't going anywhere. He has voted in every election. His agricultural protest photos give him the feeling he has done something good.

But along comes that nagging idea that won't go away. Along comes the facilitator of fresh thinking. A pig that won't stay in his place. It is that pig that brings Farmer Hoggett to a realization that his simple words of command have all along contained the miracle of poetry, the catapult behind the quantum leap.

Words link Farmer Hoggett and Babe. There is a clue in Farmer Hoggett's last name. What can a HOGgett be but a grown up pig.

Without language, the animals cannot communicate. Not among themselves nor with one another. Without language, the animals have not even reached a clear understanding of the first meme, the beige meme of survival. They just are. The duck does use his survival consciousness to go orange. The others only have acceptance. The magic level, the voodoo level of Spiral Dynamics is the device used by the story tellers. The magic is language. This illustrates the story teller's willingness to use the lower level meme of magic to create a story that facilitates the quantum leap to hyperspace consciousness.

The power of poetry. Poetry is a mind altering substance. Art is always a mind altering substance. But poetry is within the reach of everyone. It requires no tools. If you say one at least needs pencil and paper, sorry, no. Taalam Acey is a very good poet and has a considerable repertoir. He has never put one of his poems on paper - it is all in his head. Every person has the power of poetry. Every person has the power to alter their state. I said every person who can understand what I am saying has the power to alter their state of consciousness by creating poetry. As with every other field of endeavor, some people are especially gifted. Some people work especially hard. But everyone can create poetry.

Using poetry for personal growth is very simple. Anyone can make the quantum leap from any of the eight states of consciousness to hyper awareness. Poetry is not tied to any of those states. Poetry does not depend on intercessors, rituals, magic, hero worship, saviour seeking, conformity, egalitarianism - yet it can employ, even exploit, all of these. Poetry does not need to step on any toes. It simply has the power to lift one up on their toes and whirl them around the room like a ballerina.

We could extend the power of poetry to say power of parlance. We could say Babe is simply using the common courtesy of the green meme to get the sheep to comply. We could say it is the knowledge of the code "baa ram ewe" that brings success. We could also go out on a limb and say poetry is courtesy - we will leave it hanging in the air. But courtesy has that air of poetry. When you are tired and want to go home and you are stuck in a two magazine article queue at the market and you finally get to the cashier and you manage to say, "hi, how are you today, it must take a lot of patience to have such a crowd of customers like this and still do a good job and we appreciate you" - hey that is pretty close to poetry to the ears of that cashier.

In effect you are exercising an approach to the kind of breakthrough Farmer Hoggett had when he was trying to feed Babe and get Babe well. You are exhibiting the attitude that is going to prime that quantum leap. And when you leap you are going to dance and reach for the sky and like a true poet you are going to exclaim:

"If I had words to make a day for you
I'd sing you a morning, golden and new
I would make this day to last for all time
and give you a night, deep in moonshine"

And when those words come, they may not be overly gilded with complex metaphor, they may have a fetching but simple rhythm. They may not rhyme at all. But they may be world shakingly powerful. They may be something like this:

Narrator: And so it was that in all the celebration, in all the hubbub of noise and excitement, there were two figures who stood silent and still, side by side. And though every human in the stands or in the commentary boxes was at a complete loss for words, the man who in his life had uttered fewer than any of them knew exactly what to say.
Farmer Hoggett: That'll do, Pig. That'll do.