What My Artist Says
by Tim Kavi
there won't be any stopping me now
the words are flowing
the lamps are burning oil
the afterfires are burning
and it won't matter to me
because the fire is burning
purging the blues away
no matter what time of day
what matters is the work
the flowing words that drop
like paint on a blank page
that bring a meaning I never observed
that brings happy memories
joyful sad juxtapositions of place
in the black-shrouded dropcloth
of space, there is only me in the void
can I bravely create?
no shrinking back? no holding back!
until the words are done
the colors set
destroyed by Siva
sands wiped by monk sweeps
in the morning of my next
existence, I will keep saying
words of the artist
painting painting painting painting
I don't care what you think
let me just throw paint!
damnit, help me
or get out of the way
can't you see my tears
are starting to flow?
to the spaces, and creases
I don't want to go
but when the work is finished
is it a work on me?
or something I needed to say
to help society?
I don't know, I just want to throw
to hurl paint
at the whispering wind
the canvas of Nature
catches it, as it is expressed
in my deepest heart!
and around the next bend
the curtain is pulled back
revealed for what the deeper
purpose has wrought
until the sands of time
move someone else to say it again
and again, fooling transcendence
but never cheating the permanent void
there is the going, the turning
the burning nights, the glorious sights
of Her reveal, muses eternal
proclaiming what is to be read
because on Her lips it has already
been said, across the ancient skies
since time has been born
down below her hips
the birthing of all that is
in countless stories told,
pages worn, heartbreaks torn
in the light of history's torch
frames of flickering images
burn my sand burned eyes now
tell more stories, with much
more disguise, but still
flickering shadows reveal
the cave wall, of artists'
inspiration, in a great reveal
there it is! There it is!
now showing
no hiding what has been done
just the completed picture
until tomorrow's sun.
