A Selfless Art

‘Art comprehends us – it is through language that we are understood – and poetry, above all, steps into the heart and saturates it with understanding. Whenever I read poetry which has this kind of knowledge, I know that I am known. I am seen. I am not alone. How to understand a text is a matter of pedagogy. How to be understood by a text is a matter of healing.’

Griffiths, J. 2016, Tristimania, A Diary of Manic Depression, Penguin

Art can heal our wounds, if it’s the right work at the right time, and we approach it with humility and an open heart—at least that’s been my experience. I like the idea of being understood by a text, though I’m sketchy on what it really means. Perhaps it echoes Philip Pullman’s idea about the kind of reader a book seems to expect in Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling, (p.241).