{"id":7599,"date":"2010-10-11T17:12:40","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T09:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=7599"},"modified":"2010-10-14T09:51:36","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T01:51:36","slug":"the-forgotten-virtues-of-poetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/10\/the-forgotten-virtues-of-poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"The Forgotten Virtues of Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

From His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama,
\n‘Compassion is not a luxury,
\nit is a necessity for human beings to survive.’*
\nCompassion in all its expressions surely, for spiritual survival too!<\/p>\n

From ‘Ceriph’ of 17th September 2010 (issue one),**
\n‘Poetry is a luxury we cannot afford.’
\nLee Kuan Yew famously declared in 1969,
\nexplaining Singapore’s focus on economic growth.<\/p>\n

From ‘The Star’ of 4th October 2010,**
\n‘In the last two years [of his wife’s life],
\nLee had spent many hours by her bedside,
\nreading from her well-thumbed copies of English poetry…’<\/p>\n

All the money [read: ‘economic growth’] in the world
\ncannot reverse ageing,
\ncure all sicknesses,
\nor avert death.<\/p>\n

All the money [read: ‘material stuff’] in the world
\ncannot be brought over,
\nno, not even a cent,
\nto the hereafter.<\/p>\n

All the money [read: ‘not “Gross International Happiness”‘] in the world
\ncannot create beautiful poetry,
\nor buy its heartfelt insights,
\nfor they are invaluable, priceless.<\/p>\n

All the money [read: ‘merely resources for something greater’] in the world
\nis only good for arriving at the times,
\nwhen we can sit back and relax with one another,
\nto read, write and savour the poetry of life [in all its forms, including this]!<\/p>\n

Poetry, with its compassion and wisdom
\npenned in the words that sing them,
\nis surely no luxury,
\nbut a necessity.<\/p>\n

We must afford poetry more,
\nbefore it is too late,
\nbefore we lose our focus on spiritual growth [instead of ‘economic growth’],
\nbefore we lose this life.<\/p>\n

Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

* http:\/\/www.dalailama.com\/news\/post\/517-day-three-of-the-mind-and-life-xx-conference-in-zurich<\/a>
\n** http:\/\/www.ceriph.net\/store.htm<\/a>
\n** http:\/\/thestar.com.my\/news\/story.asp?file=\/2010\/10\/4\/nation\/7155815&sec=nation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, ‘Compassion is not a luxury, it is a necessity for human beings to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[341],"tags":[57,65,258,58],"class_list":["post-7599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photojournal","tag-compassion","tag-death","tag-true-happiness","tag-wisdom","wpcat-341-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}