The purpose of art

What can art accomplish?
The purpose of art is to accumulate
the human within the human being.

Svetlana Alexievich, Nobel Prize Banquet Speech 

 

 

 

 

 

Who is right?

I hold that man is in the right
who is most closely in league with the future.

    Henrik Ibsen, Letter to Georg Brandes

Stuck

We are stuck with technology
    when what we really want
        is just stuff that works.

                Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

 

 

 

 

 

Either or

Anyone who tries to make a distinction
between education and entertainment
doesn’t know the first thing about either.

        Marshall McLuhan, Explorations

 

 

 

 

Memorial Day Sonnet

We don't want your celebration,
We don't want you to honor us.
All we want is for you to grow up,
And end all tribalism that kills us.
A thousand holidays can't bring us back,
Nor can they wipe the tears of our spouses.
How will you console our children,
How will you comfort our broken parents!
Enough with your flowers and rituals,
Enough with your crocodile care!
If you have an iota of humanity,
Step up and make all divides disappear.
Yet if you still want to live life as tribal,
Rest assured we'll give ours with a smile.

    Abhijit Naskar, Mucize Insan: When The World is Family

 

 

 

 

Understanding fate

The road will never swallow you.
The river of destiny will always overcome evil.
May you understand your fate.
Suffering will never destroy you,
but will make you stronger.
Success will never confuse you or scatter your spirit,
but will make you fly higher into the good sunlight.
Your life will always surprise you.

            Ben Okri, The Famished Road

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Celia, Celia

When I am sad and weary
When I think all hope has gone
When I walk along High Holborn
I think of you with nothing on

        Adrian Mitchell