It didn’t require great character at all <br />our refusal disagreement and resistance <br />we had a shred of necessary courage <br />but fundamentally it was a matter of taste <br />Yes taste <br />in which there are fibers of soul the cartilage of <br />conscience <br />Who knows if we had been better and more <br />attractively tempted <br />sent rose-skinned women thin as a wafer <br />or fantastic creatures from the paintings of <br />Hieronymus Bosch <br />but what kind of hell was there at this time <br />a wet pit the murderers’ alley the barrack <br />called a palace of justice <br />a home-brewed Mephisto in a Lenin jacket <br />sent Aurora’s grandchildren on into the field <br />boys with potato faces <br />very ugly girls with red hands <br />………….. <br />So æsthetics can be helpful in life <br />one should not neglect the study of beauty <br />Before we declare our consent we must carefully <br />examine <br />the shape of the architecture the rhythm of the drums <br /> <br />official colors the despicable ritual of funerals <br />Our eyes and refused obedience <br />the princes of our senses proudly chose exile<br /><br />Zbigniew Herbert<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-power-of-taste/
