The poetess said, “My art will outlast me.”
Another poetess said, “Print the book. Only the page will last.”
I think about them both.
The spoken word will less likely last, since only the particular artist will pass on that art.
With so many practitioners, it’s doubtful that anyone will be memorizing others’ spoken word.
And the way society is going, the likelihood of our saved digital record
is getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
Electronics requires a shared common culture
built on trust. That’s going the way of the dodo.

Perhaps printed copies of books will last,
but with our culture of planned obsolescence,
the quality of print that we have now
will not last long at all.

The art that we create today
will not long outlive us
unless we make outrageous plans
for its posterity.

Does anyone have something in mind?