(Snip, quote)
I'd say music is the highest art because it transcends all language barriers and abilities (snip)

It doesn't necessarily transcend deafness, any more than painting transcends blindness -- although I know that there are deaf dancers.

I just had a relevant experience, I was reading the poetry thread while listening to Hober radio. Kate McCleod came on Hober, singing "Piney Wood Hills", and I actually had to stop reading the poetry because I couldn't take them both in, and the song was playing right now and I couldn't put it on hold the way I could the poems. So I closed my eyes and listened until the song was over -- and I'm going to go back to the poem with Hober on mute.

That said, I think poetry may be the most UNDER-rated art form. It's older than Homer, and I don't think any human society has ever existed or ever will that doesn't need it -- but it doesn't get the kind of mainstream air time that songs or books get, it's not sexy and high-paying and top-ten. But I really don't believe that humanity as a whole can get by without it -- not for a day. It's where I turn when I am in need -- spiritually, emotionally, deeply, from the core. Music is also intensely comforting but poetry works a different set of spiritual muscles.