Does poetry make the world a better place?
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?
Poetry is not essential to human survival in the same way that food and shelter are. I saw a thread on social media recently where poets were arguing about the importance or 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.”
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
It's time to end censorship of poetry. Poetry, like philosophy, is a mental and spiritual exercise. Everyone can benefit from writing poetry and developing their own personal philosophy.
I wonder if in fact poetry can do harm. Just as words can be painful to read, painful to write. Is that the same as doing harm?