Why Read Poetry?

I read something very true tonight. So I am going to write it down.
Why read Poetry?
Someone Called Robert Waldron answered that question. He did say it was because it is beautiful and pleasurable but that's not what stayed with me.
He said we read poetry because it awakens us to the beauty of the world around us.
I agree.
Poets look. And Poets translate. Henry David Thoreau said that it is the desire to speak like people in a waking moment to other people in their waking moments.
Poets help us to appreciate that everything is holy. They help us to feel more alive and encourage us by their example, to cleanse our windows of perception in order to see the world anew ( both the inner and outer world) and to enjoy it more abundantly.
Thoreau hoped that when he came to the end of his life he could go back on it  and know that he had lived his life "deliberately".
In giving ourselves over to the reading of poetry and then the praying of a poem. we are developing ourselves not only intellectually or aesthetically but also spiritually.
Poetry is a sacred language because it speaks of qualities. and behind qualities and sustaining them, mysteries, meanings, the holy ground of the soul's country.
Thus surrender ourselves to reading poem requires a selfishness akin to prayer.

I thought that was lovely and thought I would post it on this blog to share. That is it.