Accolades

For our graft to bear fruit,
We throw ourselves wholly into our art,
We seek no reward,
That’s not the point,
We don’t want medals,
But perhaps a verbal salve to the heart,

We all want that pat on the back,
A show of hands from family and colleagues,
Acclaim and recognition,
Perhaps even grand fame,
To be acknowledged,
It’s only human nature,

But I say all of that be secondary,
The best accolades come from within,
The warmth of ones own creative furnace,
The feeling of a job well done,
It’s true that we are our own most vicious critic,
But we ought to be our most fervent devotee.

Posthumous

I am not foreordained to be remembered,
Not like the greats,
Shakespeare,
Austen and Tolkien,
Dickenson and Dickens,
Keats and Angelou,
My exertions are that of a novice in comparison,
My work akin to finger painting,
My aspirations that of a foolish mummer,

I’m not to be remembered,
Not to be celebrated,
I am a ghost among artists,
Not yet exorcised,
Scratching nonsense in to chalk,
Wailing from outside the halls of fame,
I won’t be allowed in,
As souls of creative import congregate within,
Myself an ungifted wraith will claw limply at the door,

I’ll pass with not a mention,
And when I am finally ash,
Everything I’ve done will follow,
Off into the solar winds,
And out of memory.

Mediocrity

You would not have noticed me,
It’s entirely alright,
I am an essence blessed of mediocrity,
As I extol my virtues and values I am see-through,
I am every shade of grey between lifes colours,
The type one walks by while looking at the sidewalk,

I’m nothing special,
Barely subpar,
Middling at best,
A gemstone found to be fake,
An unnoticed epitaph of a man,
A walking grave of someone with promise,

I write cold tales and impish sonnets,
A doomsayer and miser on a street corner,
You would not have heard of me,
But it’s alright,
I am nobody,
I am nothing.

Anarchy

Words fall upon my work,
Daggers of syllables and critical edges,
This deluge of societal pressure grows tiresome,
You must do it this way they proclaim,
Overbearing suits looking down,

They extol rules of grammar and structure,
Scripture of artistic canon,
Why must art follow a blueprint?
Does it follow a routine?
Is it supposed to follow monotony?

I am no revolutionary,
But I write in anarchic tones,
I create as a spirit of chaos,
It is as spraypaint wind,
My stanzas form as they may,

I am no vandal,
You shall never find me looting or pillaging,
But I shall create as I do,
I simply cannot succumb,
There are no rules to my art,

I’m an anarchist.

Harlequin Aspect

Look at me,
Gaze upon my singular face,
Hark to this clown,
For it takes a fool to see the truth of things,
A madman to understand the world,
So I daub each colour upon my jesters aspect,

This face of paints,
It shifts like a tumultuous sea,
Replete with vivid corals of all shades,
Prismatic tsunamis as expressions shift,
Yet this mind is more of a circus,
I’m a deranged showman in truth,

I wield these colours instead of emotions,
Each chroma deciphering an aspect of reality,
To shine light on mans vices,
They are my true face,
For it requires lunacy to be totally free,
And insanity is the only truly sane way to exist,

An arbiter of pure chaos,
True art,
A clown to point the crooked way,
I’m the Oldschool Harlequin.

Pretender

Society dragged me aside to let me know,
I have childish notions of being an artist,
A foolish path,
Ludicrous wants and ideas,
Plans of a dunce,
Or so am I led to believe,

Am I just pretending?
An impostor,
Doing the motions without understanding?
Wearing my silly apron,
With my silly pen,
Writing my silly little words,

When I string together webs of emotion,
Am I a creator?
When I put words to paper,
Am I a writer?
When I brush colour on to parchment,
Am I a painter?

I don’t know the truth of it,
Perhaps I do sully the name of wordsmith,
Playing at artistry,
Wearing a mask of competence,
Though I shake behind it,
Perhaps I am just pretending after all.

The Arts

Folks always extol the worth of certain souls,
Sportsmen and craftsmen and merchants,
Politicians and drivers and hairdressers,
They glorify the benefits these have upon their lives,
Overt blessings upon their lives,
But do think they think of the artists?
A true unifying force of human nature,

Less important?

Less palpable in their perks perhaps?
Sculpture to break up the monotony of construction,
Literature to open the mind,
Music to bring an emotive bounce to your being,
Paintings to lay bare invisible elements of the human condition,
Theatre to bring to life stories of eons,
Dancing to exhibit human beauty in mobile styles,

Less important?

Imagine your day without television or busker melodies,
Your living space without beautifying icons,
Without the great paintings of historical genius,
These may not keep your body alive,
But they breath life into your soul,
We need the arts to be human,
And not mere machines.

Salvador Dali

There was a man born of Catalonia,
To whom normalcy was a razor,
Tracing lines of grey across his wrists,
Uniformity he fought tooth and brush,

With an upturned moustache,
And a cane,
He carved a path for artists everywhere,
A proponent of classicism and surrealism,

A true artist,
A personality of eccentricity and controversy,
Ostentatious to some,
But wholly himself,

Works that tore open reality,
A burning giraffe and a lobster telephone,
Galatea and Columbus,
A perplexing mix of science and madness,

A genius without the right to die,
But even allowed to rest,
In the grave,
Beneath a house of art.

Blogosphere

Blogging,
The blogosphere,
This bionic web of broaching subjects busily,
Akin to a brother of a gallery building,
Bringing beauty to the bustling bunchs,
Beguiling brainchilds,
And boisterous begetters,
A bible for bibliophiles,

A bountiful ballad of books,
A bedlam of benign braggarts,
Blue art and burgundy art,
Babbling and baying,
Blending like a beautiful wine of bravura,
Bring on the baroque banquet,
More blogging,
Let’s be bloggers.

Hopeful Youth

The Earth is amidst a storm,
Grey and ghastly skies,
But let us not forget,
When the world is taking in water,
There are those who wish for the future,
To have an upward trajectory,
For division to be subtracted,
Those whose years have not yet seen the gloom,

The youths wield their weapons,
Spraycans and paint,
They wash the drab away,
With images of doves,
And purple fingers crossed,
A mural of prismatic positivity,
In violets and teals,
Tattooing the world with hopeful graffiti,

I envy their zeal,
They wave and call to hopes light,
As it crosses the street,
Elusive hat brim floorward,
Does hope hear them?
Does it see their art?
Does it hear their pleas?
Or does it continue on into the rain?