Sherry Chandler

The role of art

From Muriel Rukeyser, The Life of Poetry (Current Books, 1949):

Poetry will not answer these needs. It is art; it imagines and makes, and give you the imaginings. Because you have imagined love, you have not loved; merely because you have imagined brotherhood, you have not made brotherhood. You may feel as though you had, but you have not. You are going to have to use that imagining as you best can, by building it into yourself, or you will be left with nothing but illusion.

Art is action, but it does not cause action: rather, it prepares us for thought.

Art is intellectual, but it does not cause thought: rather it prepares us for thought.

Art is not a world, but a knowing of the world. Art prepares us.

Art is practised by the artist and the audience. It is not a means to an end, unless that end is the total imaginative experience.

That experience will have meaning. It will apply to your life; and it is more than likely to lead you to thought or action, that is, you are likely to want to go further into the world, further into yourself, toward further experience.

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Don’t forget Writing Peace and Justice, a reading tonight by the Affrilachian Poets, 6:30 p.m. Carnegie Center; 251 West Second Street; Lexington. No Charge — All Are Welcome.

Readers include Nikky Finney, Frank X Walker, Ricardo Nazario Colon, Mitchell L.H. Douglas, Jude McPherson, Bianca Spriggs, with emcee Marta Miranda.

This is an impressive program. All these folks are amazing poets and wonderful readers.

And there’s free food.

So don’t miss it.

Possibly related posts:

A Bad Role-Model

Against Forgetting

Songs of Experience?

The Platonists and the Aristotelians

Do you use a bookplate?

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