Expressing Your Epiphany

by Brandy Walton

For the purpose of discussing poetry, we will use the following excerpts from Webster's Dictionary to define an epiphany: 1) a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely or commonplace occurrence or experience, or 2) a literary work or section of a work presenting, usually symbolically, such a moment of revelation and insight.

I believe poetry gives the writer more opportunity to discuss these peak experiences than any other medium in a relatively short span of words. Short stories, I'll concur, come a close second. In order to express some personal epiphany, the poet must first understand what an epiphany is, and the definition above certainly supplies the basis of understanding. But as with most definitions, it does not give an example, and I'm convinced most learning is best done when coupling experience with examples.

Step 1) Selecting the peak experience you wish to present.

Using the definition above as a springboard, make a list of those experiences when you felt so full of wonder that words failed to express it. Was it the birth of a child? The first time you made love? Watching your first sunrise at the ocean's edge? Or perhaps sitting by the bedside of a loved one as life ebbed away. Your epiphany will not be identical to anyone else's, although it may be similar.

Step 2) Take a thesaurus and write down a second list of words that coincide with the feelings you can name about experiencing this epiphany.

For example, if wonder is one of those feelings you want to express, you might also add "astonishment, amazement, surprising, unexpected, inconceivable, breathless," etc. to your list.

Step 3) Write down in one sentence the gist of the epiphany you want to express.

As an example, you might write, "This poem will tell the world how helpless I felt when I saw my neighbor get struck down by a hit-and-run drunk driver." Or "I will try to express how peaceful I felt inside as I watched my very first sunrise over the ocean."

Step 4) Using your list of words, begin to craft your poem carefully. Select the strongest word that best expresses the impressions left by your experience. Don't settle for second best, almost-ran words here!

Step 5) Don't be afraid to use metaphors and similes, but use them sparingly.

Let the experience live unto itself, not exist in comparison to something else of lesser, or different, meaning.

For example, you could say (using the sunrise idea):

That giant red orb,
like a great bloodshot eye
d slowly,
and the giant awakened from sleep
Looked over the coverlet of waves
As if to challenge my presence
in his bedroom!

Or is the following version stronger, more vivid?

Startled by the image
of that great bloodshot eyeng
Little by little,
My heartbeats stalled
When the imposing giant,
Roused from slumber
Glowered over his coverlet of waves
And challenged my impudent intrusion
Into his bedroom!

Whatever your epiphanies in life, use these steps to capture them in a verbal photograph that will express what it felt like to experience that wonder-filled moment!

Happy Writing.

Copyright (c) 1998, 2000 Brandy Walton/Scrawletta
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