Here’s another piece of lyrical writing that former Mayor John Robert Smith of Meridian, Mississippi, quoted at the Creative Placemaking Summit on Wednesday. This sentiment pre-dates the Bread & Roses slogan of Lawrence by some centuries, but makes the same case about the need to feed soul and body.

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“If I had but two loaves of bread, I would sell one and buy hyacinths, for they would feed my soul.”
– Prophet Muhammad (570-632)

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If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,
and from thy slender store
Two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy Hyacinths to feed thy Soul.
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Sa’di (Persian poet, 1184-1283)