Art Is Not A Luxury
July 21st, 2005ART IS NOT A LUXURY
by Pat Jessee
Art is not a luxury The advocacy button proclaims Sent to me by a Comrade-in-arts… Set my thoughts astray In an arts array As my dreams replay decades of speeches Pro-arts throughout the nation They roll by my mind’s eye Like the images of war Permeating our every on-air Report within earshot, heartache Finding metaphors like land mines Exploding Like a barrage of B-12 to my system
ART IS NOT A LUXURY
Creative leaps to the DMZ The line between open and closed minds Battle for the devil’s dime Priorities Security Precision missiles GPS systems for every man Woman and child Gas masks and Duct tape Suck the life out of The Very One Thing that can enable
A single human to celebrate their finest thought or express their deepest emotion
The Very One thing That can provide
A single nation a way to share their culture’s great wealth of knowledge
I heard this today, spoken by a powerful military leader “We only Destroy the things we need to, to achieve the desired effect.�? We are allowing our art/life to be destroyed…for what desired effect?
ART IS NOT A LUXURY Something to give up When you cannot pay the bills
ART IS A LUXURY We are blessed with It is in our Breath Intuition Dreams Heart songs
If you are fearful Art can make you brave
If you are blind You can hear art
If you are both you can feel art
Art can be found In the breeze song sung by a leaf chorus On the wing of a dragonfly In the lines on the palm of a friend’s hand In the percussion of rain drops in a bucket In the wrinkle-maps on an aged face
ART IS NOT A LUXURY
Pushed my button
Pat Jessee is an arts administrator in Bristol Virginia.