Can Beauty Save the World? Happy Birthday

Joshua Luke Smith is a poet I came across on YouTube recently. The piece he recites is called “Sunflowers in Babylon” which is about his uncle Terry. But of course, because its poetry it’s about so much more.

I found the spoken poem very moving and maybe for the first time, I found a poem to be intriguing. I have for many years loved immersing myself in stories and novels but viewed poetry much like I expensive wine. Most people pretend to understand it and even enjoy it.

Smith, as well as being a poet, is a songwriter, podcaster and author. He even found a record label and a charity.

Sometimes people ask me why I am spending all this time in the dungeon, willingly showing up everyday, fighting through my self doubts when AI can write anything for you.

Go listen to Joshua. Ask yourself and be honest with yourself, could a computer have written and performed “Sunflowers in Babylon”?

I don’t think so.

Maybe one day they can fake it. Maybe. But I think the human heart recognized another of it’s like, even at an extreme distance.

He asks many questions in this poem.

“Do you want to be worthy ancestors?” is a lie I think about, even thought about using different words before I heard this. The question of what we want to leave behind. The idea of planting trees that will be of no use to me, because they won’t mature until after I’m gone. Sometimes and it’s not so hard to envision it these days, I think we have lost the empathy for the children that haven’t been born yet.

We think about ourselves and the here and now. Live in the present they say. But think of the future too.

There is basic premise in this poem, a call to be better. Not more successful or wealthier. Not chasing more power. But a call to a deeper humanity.

And I am no different than all of you. Maybe this is why we need more art like this in our lives. More beauty and the pursuit of it.

“Can beauty save the world,” he asks us?

I hope so.

Today is my wife Robyn's birthday.

She remains the beauty in my life no matter how ugly it gets.

Happy Birthday Baby.