“Your sole contribution to the sum of things is yourself.”
Frank Crane
Mighty Niagara
The new IPad Air
commercial uses this beautiful speech from the 1989s movie, Dead Poets’ Society
–
"We don’t read
and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are
members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And
medicine, law, business, engineering--these are noble pursuits and necessary to
sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love--these are what we stay alive
for. To quote from Whitman, 'O me, O life of the questions of these recurring.
Of the endless trains of the faithless. Of cities filled with the foolish. What
good amid these, O me, O life? Answer: that you are here. That life exists and
identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.' That
the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse
be?"
What will your verse
be??
Honestly, the
question isn’t just for poets or writers…it’s for all of us. We write our
verses by the way we live our lives, by “writing” our own story with hope and
optimism and not letting others write it for us. It’s called living with integrity
– and it’s one of the tasks of a mature adult. The way we live cannot do “violence”
to who we are at heart. Is your art, your writing, your life telling everyone
who you really are? It’s ancient wisdom, immortalized in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
when Polonius says, “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must
follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Never doubt that your
art, your writing, your sculpture is a valuable contribution to the human
story. You may never achieve fame and fortune with your art but each word you
write, each piece you create adds meaning and richness to the world around you.
Mark Nepo, describing his search for beauty in the midst of suffering, said, “We
need art and poetry to help us express who we are and stay in relationship to
what matters.” Further, he eloquently asserts, "Poetry is the unexpected utterance of the soul…the life of
expression is the tuning fork by which we find our way to the sacred." Each piece you create, creates YOU as the person you are
becoming…you alone are in charge of who that is!
ANNOUNCING - The opening of a new art gallery - TRILLIUM GALLERY
228 Main Street,
Saugerties, NY. 12477
Phone: (845) 332-6525
Trillium Gallery Online is expanding to a physical gallery in the quaint and historic village of Saugerties, NY in the heart of the beautiful Catskill Mountains. The gallery is open to the public beginning Saturday, January 25, 2014 with a grand opening on Saturday, February 15, 2015 beginning at noon. Brilliant art coupled with good food, wine, music and more is the order of the day. No unsolicited art is accepted but you are encouraged to enter an art contest with the theme "Down on Main Street" - winner will have his/her art displayed in the gallery for one month and will be offered membership in the gallery as well. Please see contest rules at the online site at
www.trilliumgallery.com or email the curator, Maureen Maliha at trillium@post.com for further details.
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