aRt
In a world that has a baby screaming on arrival
It’s family taking turns at his departure
A coping mechanism is needed…Art!
Amid the consuming pile of suffering, hopelessness, decadence, wars, disasters, tensions, fears, meaninglessness…Sadly, space has insufficient room to contain the list
Art provides the ultimate escape
Art ingeniously knits beauty out of the strands ugliness
Erecting order on a foundation of chaos
Harmonious sounds from the noise of anarchy
Art is the life that pushes through emotional rubbles
That sprouts from the ash heap of broken dreams and disappointment
Which abundantly litter the field of life
Art can be made anywhere:
In Africa- smoldering from civil wars and disease epidemics
Middle east striving for peace
America grappling with paranoia, afraid of it’s own shadows
Russia shivering from symptoms of the cold war
Art is the healing balm that reaches deeper than the doctor’s medicine
The analgesic that dulls the pain of reality
The cushion that softens the impact of man’s stumble on life’s road
Art sucks off the poison from the circulation
For the artist, thinning the clot
For the art lover, giving a rush of blood
Art discriminates on no race
Its pictures are painted with white, black, red, yellow, brown…
All it’s colors blending into a harmonious hue
Art is the pillow on which weary heads lie for comfort
Giving them occasion for dreams
Dreams of a better world- a world of infinite possibilities
When Earth in the beginning began
It was dark, formless and void for lack of art
So God said, “Let there be art…and there was art”
posted by Vessel of Mercy at
10:26 AM
7 Comments:
Alfred,
Thank you for your nice comment yesterday and for directing me to your blog. Your poetry makes me want to see Nigeria. Are those your own photos and drawings, too? Do you know Onyeka?
Photos,yes. Drawings, no.
Onyeka is a close friend.
Thanks for visiting.
Wow beautiful, infact I was so excited to see ur commnts on Ebun's site, I mean fellow Nigerian bloggers, good! the poem is really great, just keep up the good work ure doing here. will definetly be back.
To be honest,I love this poem.SimplyputIt turns me on.I remember looking at the sea oneday as and I noticed the artistic green colour on it.It was so natural.It's nice meeting a nigerian Blogger like me.
Hello Freddy, Nice blog. I'll come and visit soon.
The opening lines are finely stated. The trauma of entry and exit, the two unknowns. (Have a look at my Vaughan post for a different Christian view).
The "Sadly, space" bit weakens your lines. It's rather like somebody speaking and saying, "You know, etc". I think, oh well if they can't be bothered to be exact, then I can't be fully attentive. Is art "escape"? Second-rate art is. But first-rate art is confrontation with reality.
Interesting: "knits" is a feminine way of knowing. Just as "Erecting" is a male way of knowing. I really like the final line. It's a non-gendered way of knowing.
In "sprouts", like a plant, I see your love of organic nature. (This is a Vaughan quality).
"Art can be made". I don't think you need "disease" and epidemics". They imply the same. Having said this, how powerfully you write here. Yes!
"Art is the healing balm". This is beautifully done, there is such balance in the pace of your words. The rhythm soothes...so sound matches meaning.
Next stanza...it's a repeat...I get bored. Sorry.
You've used "harmonious" once. Keep the reader interested with a new word. Not sure about this stanza. I think of a line from Soffici "Dip seven brushes into your heart". The spectrum/rainbow is an image of art, but to make this work, word-color (quality of language) rather than colour words are needed. Does that make sense?
The soft vowels transmit a feeling of peace; ow, ie, om, ion, eam. I like the crisp feel in "infinite possibilites".
Oh, very naughty! Chuckle. Genesis.
I really enjoyed your final stanza because it caught me by surprise!
So, what would you do to improve this? Tighten the stucture up: three line stanzas. Remove what YOU think are the weak bits. The good poet is often the poet who dares to pare ideas down.
I hope I haven't been too "intellectual". Do write that love poem some time soon. You have a feel for words. One of the greatest minds on contemporary poetry said you can present the poetic image in 3 ways: to the eye, to the ear, to the mind. It is true. Your writing uses all three. I will publish one of my poems (for you). I welcome your comments. Your words have given me pleasure.
Eshuneutic,
your attention to detail is very admirable. I missed this comment earlier on and have been very pleased finding it.
I do my writings based on what I call formulars( a germ of idea).Writing this, I thought I had come on a good formular and was too much in a hurry to publish, so frankly, I didn't allow this work to ferment (in a good way , I mean) properly.
About Disease epidemics. Epidemics like pandemics are adjectives that describe the REACH or PREVALENCE of diseases, they are not necessarily the same thing as diseases themselves.
Very nice reading your comment, thanks!
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