Poetry and economics ...

... The poetry, and wisdom, of Seamus Heaney. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In a recent interview, Heaney said he was often asked what the value of poetry was during times of economic recession. The answer, he explained, is that it is at just such moments of crisis that people realize that they do not live by economics alone. "If poetry and the arts do anything, they can fortify your inner life, your inwardness," Heaney said.

Sort of the way some people turn to God in times of trouble. Foul-weather friends. Of course, some people see religion - and poetry - not as a means of improving the self but of escaping it, getting beyond it to something less small. As for silence, I manage to find time for it every day. It can be most disconcerting.