Stephen Dunn (and the Similarity Between Poetry and Basketball)

http://nwpr.org/post/lifes-minutiae-gain-new-magnitude-dunns-lines-poetry

"One of the points that I make in the essay is the similarity between poetry and basketball is a chance to be better than yourself. To transcend yourself, if you're hot that day. And that happens in writing in our best moments. Where we find ourselves saying what we didn't know we knew, or couldn't have said in any other circumstance.
So those are the moments in poetry I live for now. I can't play basketball anymore."

To being better than ourselves, in whichever ways we can.

Ustad Farida Mahwash, On Love (And Music)

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=256562024

"Art in general, she says, and singing especially, is all about love. I am a messenger of love. It doesn't matter if you're Jewish, Christian, Buddhist or Muslim. I love humans, all humans."


In the simplest of definitions, is this what art all comes down to?

Shange, On Poetry

For the full article (on the poet Shange), please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/nyregion/a-poet-with-words-trapped-inside.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&nl=nyregion&emc=edit_ur_20131027&

 “Her art has always told the story of people who are suffering, and given meaning to their struggle. Now she’s looking back and asking, ‘What is art going to be for me in the body that I have now?’ ”
 Ms. Shange sat with a few friends and considered the question: What if poetry isn’t enough?

“You have to keep acting like it is enough,” she said. “You have to keep affirming it, and bringing yourself to it. You have to keep hoping that it will move the mountain.” 

To art that gives meaning to struggle. To faith.

On Art, and Time, and War

For the full article (on rediscovered works of art that were lost to the Nazis), please visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/arts/design/in-a-rediscovered-trove-of-art-a-triumph-over-the-nazis-will.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131106&_r=0.

 "art continues to be found, refusing oblivion."

"But while paintings, drawings and sculptures are sadly fragile, the ideals they represent — the best ones, anyway — aren’t. And so the painted woman by Matisse, fan in lap, a string of pearls around her neck, a veil draped over her hair, is a testament to art’s indefatigable ambitions."

We're all going to die someday, right? I think that's the biggest truth I know, that we all are bound for oblivion. And yet we have now.

We have our minds, our hearts and our spirits. We have our art, our ideals.

To refusing oblivion. To making art.

On Listening (NY Times Article)

(Original article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/arts/television/storycorps-marks-its-10th-anniversary.html?nl=nyregion&emc=edit_ur_20131027)

Short piece on StoryCorps's 10-year anniversary. 

The act of listening “reminds people that they matter..."

To listening.

Sadhguru (Washington Post: Obsessed-with-success Washington could learn a lesson from mystic Sadhguru)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/obsessed-with-success-washington-could-learn-a-lesson-from-mystic-sadhguru/2013/10/24/7ff3bb94-3c39-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html

"The issue is: How do you conduct your life in a situation that is terrible?  The important thing is what you make out of it. You only come out wounded or wise."
-Sadhguru

I've come across this message time and time again - you are not able to control external factors, but only how you react to it (Frankl, Sadhguru...others I'm undoubtedly forgetting). So choose well. Turn the wound into wisdom somehow.

The most important message of all is this: “Love, joy, peace, bliss are not sustainable.”
-Sadhguru

What an interesting sentence, huh? Not quite what I think of when I think of inspiration. And yet maybe that's exactly it - knowing that a state of bliss, a state of peace, all those other states, aren't sustainable. Maybe that frees us of our preconceived notions, allows us to open up.

To coming out of terrible situations wounded - because I'm not so sure we can help that - but wiser.

George Saunders's Convocation Speech, Syracuse University, 2013

I haven't read any speeches in a while, and came across this yesterday. Now, I still haven't gotten to actually reading any of Saunders's work (see: http://wingedbywords.blogspot.com/2013/01/feeling-known.html), but I will, one of these days.

And meanwhile, I am so inspired and moved by this speech he gave at Syracuse University earlier this year. Especially this one bit (well, okay, it's more than a bit):

"Do all the other things, the ambitious things – travel, get rich, get famous, innovate, lead, fall in love, make and lose fortunes, swim naked in wild jungle rivers (after first having it tested for monkey poop) – but as you do, to the extent that you can, err in the direction of kindness.  Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial.  That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality – your soul, if you will – is as bright and shining as any that has ever been.  Bright as Shakespeare’s, bright as Gandhi’s, bright as Mother Theresa’s.  Clear away everything that keeps you separate from this secret luminous place.  Believe it exists, come to know it better, nurture it, share its fruits tirelessly."
-George Saunders

It's pretty simple stuff, when it comes down to it: doing things "that incline you toward the big questions," avoiding "the things that would reduce you and make you trivial." Simple and difficult, all at once. But start today. Whatever it is. Take a moment and look up at the night sky. Or close your eyes and breathe and breathe, and just breathe. Read. Listen to music. Make music. Be kind. 

And remember, "That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality – your soul, if you will – is as bright and shining as any that has ever been.  Bright as Shakespeare’s, bright as Gandhi’s, bright as Mother Theresa’s.  Clear away everything that keeps you separate from this secret luminous place."

To being kind. To nurturing that "luminous part of you." 




For the full text: http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/george-saunderss-advice-to-graduates/?src=me