Thursday 7 October 2010

Moondustwriter's Thursday - A Look at the Arts


Welcome to Moon Dust Writer Thursday
 I am using today to stand on a platform and shout.
I have had several friends recently who have doubted themselves as writers, poets, musicians. 
I have to say I blame society for the discouragement. I myself am a victim of society's hand of judgement on creative people. Why? I was bound to art and poetry, heart and soul, as a child. I grew up encouraged to be creative.I won my first awards in art at 5, sold my first drawings at 12, and started publishing
 (well you get the idea). When it was time to go to Art School, I caved in to the opinion of society.
All I heard was: "How will you make a living? You will be poor unless you become a commercial artist."
I had known poor my entire life as well as what appeared to be "unsuccessful." My extremely, talented artist mother is the epitome of the starving artist.  Her joy is in creating beauty and expressing the woes of mankind on a canvas. Those who own her work received it as a gift of gratitude. I walked away from my painting and poetry because I was intimidated and never looked back (until a year ago.)



So here's my shout to you - write, paint, create because you love it!
 Strive at it because you are inspired. Put your pen to the paper because you might inspire another to greatness. Don't look for self-aggrandizement. Art is intended to influence society. It is the intrinsic value that influences not the dollar value. Long before a DaVinci had a value of millions, DaVinci was influencing art students and bringing joy to the common man. Take your words and paint - big flashy stokes, 
 fine quiet ones, or a mixture of the two

Here are two of my mother's paintings; they represent different styles and moods.
 I encourage each of you to use your words in a variety of styles and moods.
Your heart and hands will thank you!




OF MODERN POETRY
by Wallace Stevens


The poem of the mind in the act of finding.
What will suffice. It has not always has had
To find: the scene was set: it repeated what
Was in the script.
Then the theater was changed
To something else. Its past was a souvenir

It has to be living, to learn the speech of the place.
It has to face the time of the men and to meet
The women of the time. It has to think about war
And it has to find what will suffice. It has
To construct a new stage. It has to be on that stage,
And, like an insatiable actor, slowly and
With meditation, speak words that in the ear,
In the delicatest ear of the mind, repeat,
Exactly, that which it wants to hear, at the sound
Of which, an invisible audience listens,
Not to the play, but to itself, expressed
In an emotion as of two people, as of two
Emotions becoming one. The actor is
A metaphysician in the dark, twanging
An instrument twanging, a wiry sting that gives
Sounds passing through sudden rightness, wholly
Containing the mind, below which it cannot descend
Beyond which it has no will to rise.
It must
Be the finding of a satisfaction, and may
Be of a man skating, a woman dancing, a woman



 Combing. The poem of the act of the mind.


Wallace Stevens was a poet born in October 1879. Based on the ideas conveyed in this poem, he had a forward thinking mentality about poetry.Fortunately, for us, poets like Stevens took a stand or we might all be writing in quatrains.

Thanks for your visit to One Stop Poetry today. Our goal is to encourage you to inspire and be inspired. Hopefully we will have a generation on our heels driven to do the same thing.



16 comments:

Marshy said...

what an amazing article...personally anyone who reads my comment, i can confirm moonie means every word of it...she has been a rock to me, in my darkest hours, when i have felt like chucking it all in...she encourages the poet in me to battle on....she is a gold medal winner for what she does...cheers pete

River said...

An inspiring piece...thank you Moondustwriter. It brought tears to my eyes for you, me, all creative people in the many ways they express. Your words ring so true....

Chris G. said...

Well this one definitely hits home. Fine piece - and a great message to shout! May it ring from the hills. Embrace your creativity for the sake of creativity, would-be artists.

Joshua Gray said...

Poverty of the soul trumps monetary poverty every time.

Myrna R. said...

Very powerful. I am so grateful for those encouraging words.

Daniel Audet said...

Really heart-felt, and so true. Many artists and writers are, or become lost in the faithless world we live in. Determination is only justified in hindsight very often and without support it can be daunting. One wonders how many great works of art and compositions of literature have never "been", that could have. And, how much humanity has lost because of it. Counting the cost spiritually and in life is where it all happens. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and reach out. Someone will catch you, you will not fall.

dustus said...

After participating in One Shot Wednesday (still commenting) the words of Wallace Stevens regarding Poetry hit home: "It has to face the time of the men and to meet the women of the time..." As you explain, "strive at it because you are inspired." As your mother had also encouraged you through her artistic gifts, so to let us create and inspire! cheers

Bubba said...

I hope the world wakes up soon.

(Then I can get a book deal!)

Maureen said...

I think sometimes what we might not understand is that the rejection is not about us personally. It took me a long time to get that. I stopped writing poetry for a long time because the rejection was tough, because I didn't have MFA after my name or hadn't been published enough in some name lit mag. Then my brother became ill with the cancer that ultimately took his life a year ago. I started writing poetry again to make sense of the experience, and then met (virtually) L.L. and Glynn, and many others, including Jenne who is trying again in her '60s to get back into the world of published poets, a place she deservedly occupied once. Coming here was one of the best things I've done; it's so encouraging a place. I know I can't give up my poetry writing again. What I discover in it now is like taking another breath. It's as essential as air.

Thank you for sharing your mother's paintings and your deeply felt words.

Claudia said...

thank you so much Leslie, this was really inspiring and encouraging!!!
meet the men and women of the time - this touched my heart - yes, yes, yes!

also thanks for sharing the paintings of your mom - they are beautiful

Brian Miller said...

nice one moon...artists need encouraging....we leave our emotions on the page to be trampled every day...but what would be do if squelched that voice inside us and walked away...so sad.

Shashidhar Sharma said...

Yes Moondust, you are perfectly right.. I became a civil engineer which was a great thing to be in India at that time 80's but the creativity was pushing me from the begining so I chose the one creative part of civil engineering - that is Interior designs, from where I could vent my pentup feelings emotions etc... now at this stage, its now sloshing around with in me like a storm and looks like I am going to give it a try.. lets see how it goes, I have started writing the book that I wanted to and write poetry a lot... specially Haiku's
You can read my book being developed in the blog Shadow Dancing with mind under the section "Yogi Baba"...
Thanks for doing a great work here... and thanks for keeping these whimsical creative people engaged week by week...

ॐ नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya
Twitter: @VerseEveryDay
Blog: http://shadowdancingwithmind.blogspot.com

Gabriela Abalo said...

great article!! very encouraging and full of emotions.
Modern society look at art as a hobby or passing time. Having a career is a must.
For almost 20 years I did what I didn't like, hiding away my artistic side. 6 months ago I left my highly paid job, now I'm an artist and a yoga teacher - I'm happier than ever.

loveNlight
Gabi

moondustwriter said...

Really grateful to each of you and people like Pete and Adam and Brian who encouraged me in different ways when the re-beginning seemed soooo difficult.


Hugs and thanks from the Moon

Lisa Ursu said...

I love what you are shouting from your platform. It made me cry, and smile, and I thank you for that,
truly.

Wysteria said...

Not everyone dreams in color. Artists and Writers do.

Lovely piece

Wysteria