the artist is the heart of the world
beyond the spin
beyond the soothing rain
the artist is the sensing feeler
the flickering tongue
crawling in dense underbrush
the world grows darker
the artist is a glimmer of light
words and pictures
sounds and visions
paintings of an inner life
in the ruination and thereafter
the promised gardens
that you deny ever happened
defy you in an unchanging frame
an iron figure
fixed in original damage
its original painful husk
and the stubborn monster
the essence of mystery
for the rest of your life