ART & ORGANISM: WORDS about WORDS
Joseph Campbell once wrote, “The best things can’t be told . . .” Yet most of us have found ourselves deeply moved by a combinations of words that seem to evoke deep feelings that could not in any other way be so well expressed.
At a presentation about poetry of spirituality at the Westside UU congregation a few years ago I patched together an Opening Prayer from the words of Blaise Pascal, Albert Einstein, and John F Kennedy,
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows not. For the heart’s intuition is a sacred gift and our rational mind is a faithful servant, but Woe to the society that “honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” / Let us remember that in the end, our choices are aesthetic. / Let us remember that when power leads to arrogance, poetry can restore our limitations. / That when power narrows our concern, poetry reminds us of the richness and diversity of existence. / That when power corrupts, poetry cleanses. / Let us honor the art that undertakes the sharing of the deepest layers of humanity in the light of the truths which are the touchstone of our judgement.
