Almost an Ars Poetica

Almost an Ars Poetica

I don't have to eat
this breakfast silence
although I should
lest I go scattering
through another day

I want to live
sunlight on belly
brass in bold beds
although some days it's
awkward hard

•

It's not that
suffering leads to art,
that common myth
among non-artists,
it's that art is your best
response to life, a way to cope,
to get at the marrow,
to want to go on living.

We don't suffer for our art,
it is our art that gives solace
to our suffering. We cope as we can.
And making art is still
our best revenge.