Does poetry make the world a better place?

What if there was more poetry in the world

Hi, All-Weather Friends!

Is all-weather friends the opposite of fair-weather friends?

nothing but gray skies
winter here is cold and wet
and endless drizzle

Does Poetry Make the World a Better Place?

Poetry is not essential to human survival in the same way that food and shelter are, but does that mean it’s worthless?

I saw a thread on social media recently where poets were arguing about the importance and essentialness of poetry. It was pretty toxic, and I won’t share it here.

Instead, I will leave you with a quote from Dean Young’s book, The Art of Recklessness:

Let us suppose everyone in the world wakes up today and tries to write a poem. It is impossible to know what will happen next but certainly we may be assured that the world will not be made worse.

I think more of us need to adopt the Hippocratic oath’s vow of “first do no harm.” Maybe most critically engineers and AI researchers, but also artists of all stripes.

I want to make my corner of the world a better place, but it starts with first not making it worse—and that turns out to be not such an easy guide to live a life by.

Cheers,

Jason