Poetry Unbound

It can be overwhelming, sometimes, to reflect on all the negative weight of history, and the cycles of war, oppression and domination that seem to recur with depressing regularity. But then I read something written by another human centuries ago and I am reminded that there is so much more that connects us than divides us and that what I’m going through today was experienced by someone else in another time and place.

For example, I came across a phrase from Plato’s Symposium recently, where he talks about the feeling of meeting a soulmate. He describes the experience as one of “… an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy” and it just felt so real and true and beautiful, even two thousand years later.

I also love this perspective from James Baldwin on history and time and the importance of remembering those who have gone before us:

“For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”