Sunday, April 6, 2008

"Of the Empire"

We will be known as a culture that feared death
and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity
for the few and cared little for the penury of the
many. We will be known as a culture that taught
and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke
little if at all about the quality of life for
people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All
the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a
commodity. And they will say that this structure
was held together politically, which it was, and
they will say also that our politics was no more
than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of
the heart, and that the heart, in those days,
was small, and hard, and full of meanness.


--Poem by Mary Oliver

1 comment:

cmfstudent said...

i'm so excited to discover your blog. In my last year at grad school for a mfa, i just read The Reenchantment of Art and it helped me so much. Its easy to feel that my thoughts are alien and are only shared by a few. your book was a revalation that other people grapple with the same issues re the art world and the planet. I am interested in getting copies of the book for as many classmates as possible, but am not sure my department head will help. but i at least want to try. I go to SVA in ny and theres a mixture of pessimism and hope there. clairemikiko@yahoo.com thanks!