As far as I am concerned, poetry is a statement concerning the

“As far as I am concerned, poetry is a statement concerning the human condition, composed in verse.” Thus proclaimed N. Scott Momaday, a voice of Native America, whose work carries both the memory of his people and the universal cry of humanity. His words define poetry not as decoration, nor as mere play of sound, but as testimony. Poetry, in his vision, is a deliberate act, a statement—a shaping of language that speaks of who we are, of what it means to live, to suffer, to hope, and to endure.

The meaning of this saying lies in its clarity: poetry is not a distraction from life, but a mirror of it. To write poetry is to wrestle with the human condition—to bear witness to love, to grief, to mortality, to the hunger for meaning. It is not enough for poetry to charm with beauty; it must also say something of weight, something that addresses the timeless struggles of being human. By calling it a statement, Momaday reminds us that poetry is intentional, never accidental—it is the shaping of thought into rhythm and verse.

The origin of this conviction is found in Momaday’s own heritage as a Kiowa storyteller. For his people, poetry was not confined to books, but lived in song, chant, and oral tradition. These were statements of identity and survival, telling who the people were, where they came from, what truths bound them together. In his own writing, Momaday carried this ancient understanding into modern literature, insisting that poetry, however dressed in new forms, still bears the same responsibility: to speak of the human spirit in the face of time.

History confirms this eternal role of poetry. Consider the Book of Psalms, verses of lament and praise that have endured across millennia. They are not ornamental—they are statements of faith, grief, longing, and hope, shaping the spiritual life of entire nations. Or recall Homer, whose Iliad is not simply the tale of battles, but a meditation on mortality, glory, rage, and fate. These works endure because they speak not only of their time but of the human condition itself. They remind us that poetry has always been the art of saying what matters most.

The lesson here is that if we write or read poetry, we must not treat it as mere diversion. Each poem is a chance to grapple with existence, to state aloud what it means to be human in a world of joy and sorrow. To read poetry, then, is to listen to the voices of countless others who have wrestled with the same questions. To write poetry is to join that chorus, to add your own statement to the eternal dialogue of humanity.

Practically, this means we should approach poetry with reverence. When you read, ask: what does this poem say of the human condition? When you write, ask: what truth do I seek to shape here? Do not fear that your words are small—every life holds truths worth speaking. Begin with honesty, with the rhythms of your own experience, and shape them into verse. In doing so, you participate in an ancient and unbroken act of testimony.

Thus the teaching endures: poetry is not escape, but engagement. It is the art of turning experience into a statement, shaping life into verse that bears witness to what it means to be human. N. Scott Momaday reminds us that poetry is as old as storytelling itself, and as urgent as the questions of the soul. Let us then honor poetry not as pastime, but as sacred duty: to speak truth, to remember, to declare, and to join our voices with those who have sung before us of the human condition.