mhall46184@aol.com
Why do We Write?
“Beauty will save the world.”1
-Dostoyevsky
If we accept that art helps us reveal
The hidden structures of the universe
As beauty transcendent in color and form
Harmonious truth in music, word, and dance
Then choosing sides in old men’s deadly games
Is merely empire-building, trunkless legs2,
And focusing upon our hurts and harms
Is but a dark Endorian3 conceit
If we build art in love, not for ourselves,
But for all others, we live beyond all time
1 Prince Myshkin in The Idiot
2 Shelley, “Ozymandias”
3 1 Samuel 28
