THOUGHTS ON THE ARTS

Some live

in religious thought

like the Catholic essayist
Hillaire Belloc
wish to turn the clock back,
others hope for a Restoration
in the plays of Dryden
or enjoy listening
the Toy Symphony of Haydn,
others choose like Bierce
to serve the Devil's Trill,
some live for Romanticism
in the voice to thrill

from the Russian Chaliapin,
or enjoy the films of Chaplin,
others admire the skill

at the museum of the painters
Utrillo or Picasso,
Cezanne, Corot, Moreau
Art nouveau, Henri Rousseau
or an enchanted Mark Rothko,
still others spend time
reading Cioran or Adorno,

we distill in brilliant novel form

Julien Gracq's "Chateau d'Argol,"

or flow with the characters
in the dance ballets

of Jean Cocteau,
or hear music of Corigliano
with his Neo-Romanticism,
Shoenberg's Pantonalism
or Phillip Glass's Minimalism,
even watch plays
by the director
Patrice Chereau,
learn from novels by Sartre
and discern Camus,

or live like Longfellow
or Thoreau

who seek knowledge

like Coleridge or Malraux,
or we go to Mozart operas
and Peter Sellars
others make us art critics
beyond the expressionist school
like Bacon or Warhol
who paint by their own rule
and call out their own Cabala

from sounding myths
in the halls of Valhalla,

we also can watch a portrait

of the late Rabbi Ben Ezra

by Robert Browning,

others become alcoholic

and succeed in the art scene

like Jackson Pollock,

not all make us well

as Edith Sitwell.