As death draws near, my appreciation for the power of poetry grows. It’s more than enjoyment of the rythm, or the message, or the play of words. Much more.
My appreciation grows from my learning more languages. My appreciation grows from what I know of computers and artificial intelligence. My appreciation grows because of how little I understand of quantum mechanics. Indeed, how little anyone understands the quantum world.
Poetry may be the only true way to represent concepts that are beyond language, beyond numbers, beyond our ability to comprehend. Invoking images that transcend today’s textbooks may be the only way the next generation can break free of the old generation’s ruts.
Invoking images that are rooted in our deep genetic history, in the lives and memories of our very genes, is possibly the only way anyone can truly appreciate where our species has come from. Where it is going.
All that said, the reason for these musings is that I came across a Teddy Roosevelt speech that he made in Paris a century ago. It’s inspiring. And it’s timeless. And it’s poetry.
Absolutely brilliant. I hope you enjoy it as much as I. And I hope you don’t mind the way I’ve broken the lines so that it’s poetic element becomes more evident.
Peace to all.
Teddy’s Poem Starts Here
It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out
how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred
by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly;
who errs,
who comes short again and again,
because there is no effort
without error and shortcoming;
but who does actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end
the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst,
if he fails,
at least fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be
with those cold and timid souls
who neither know victory nor defeat.
PS – This video from one of my favorite philosophic duos is what led my to the speech in the first place.
Behavior, study of... 