These surely are words for hope and optimism and positivity while at the same time a cautious reminder of where we might go if we’re not “at the harvest” – just brilliant.

Mental Fight (selected extracts) By Ben Okri

Already, the future is converging with the past.

Already the world is converging.

The diverse ways of the world

Will create wonderful new forms,

Lovely cultural explosions

In the centuries to come.

Already I sense future forms of art,

Of painting, sculpture, humour,

Already I sense future novels,

Plays, poems, dances.

Already I sense the great orchestras

Of humanity, a world symphony,

A world jam, in which the diverse

Genius of the human race –

Its rich tapestry of differences –

Will combine, weave, heighten,

Harmonise all its varied ways

And bring about a universal flowering

In all the vast numbers of disciplines

And among the unnumbered people.

Already I can hear this distant music

Of the future,

The magic poetry of time,

The distillation of all our different gifts.

Will you be at the harvest,

Among the gatherers of new fruits?

Then you must begin today to remake

Your mental and spiritual world,

And join the warriors and celebrants

Of freedom, realisers of great dreams.

You can’t remake the world

Without remaking yourself

Each new era begins within.

It is an inward event,

With unsuspected possibilities

For inner liberation.

We could use it to turn on

Our inward lights.

We could use it to use even the dark

And negative things positively.

We could use the new era

To clean our eyes,

To see the world differently,

To see ourselves more clearly.

Only free people can make a free world.

Infect the world with your light.

Help fulfill the golden prophecies

Press forward the human genius.

Our future is greater than our past.

We are better than that.

We are greater than our despair.

The negative aspects of humanity

Are not the most real and authentic;

The most authentic thing about us

Is our capacity to create, to overcome,

To endure, to transform, to love,

And to be greater than our suffering.

We are best defined by the mystery

That we are still here, and can still rise

Upwards, still create better civilisations,

That we can face our raw realities,

And that we will survive

The greater despair

That the greater future might bring.