Dana Gioia, Commencement address at Stanford

I thought that this was a pretty amazing speech given in the name of art. I urge everyone to read and think about what the Poet Dana Gioia has to say.

Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts:

(this is part of the whole commencement see link below)

Art is an irreplaceable way of understanding and expressing the world—equal to but distinct from scientific and conceptual methods. Art addresses us in the fullness of our being—simultaneously speaking to our intellect, emotions, intuition, imagination, memory, and physical senses. There are some truths about life that can be expressed only as stories, or songs, or images.

Art delights, instructs, consoles. It educates our emotions. And it remembers. As Robert Frost once said about poetry, "It is a way of remembering that which it would impoverish us to forget." Art awakens, enlarges, refines, and restores our humanity. You don't outgrow art. The same work can mean something different at each stage of your life. A good book changes as you change.

Read the whole speech here
Provided by Jill Dybka at the Poetry Hut