JASPER JOHNS VIEW


Jasper Johns
changed how we view
the business of his pop art
as he is listening on the radio
in a confluence of music's part
introducing a new language
beyond the classical
screened for our critical age
spawned a lyrical minimalism
as in John Cage's technical part
who opened up to me in his studio
with a jazz solo number vibrating
in attraction of eternal magnetism
by greeting and speaking to me
of his blistering personal romance
now trembling on the piano
with its skull of Hamlet
let loose with words of meaning
'To be or not to be,"
for his reality show rehearsal
as well in our dancer's meeting
in flow free expression's heart
when Merce Cunningham
starring in a solo performance
emerges from his own life span
landing on a new form of rehearsal
covering a horizon
of the outdoor stage
that all the stops were changed
and altered by a rocking sound
of the Sixties underground
from a wide range
of our distraction still slams us
as live  trip wire
of extended witnesses
in art, music, poetry's satisfaction
when at a party in the Big Apple
tears drop from our eyes
as we question what we saw
or when we wrote of our times
our rendered words recognized
now by quoted by millions
from realized open pavilions
in San Francisco Beat time
from a flawed yet exciting era
expecting a call of many changes
casting all art chimes to meet us
as we chant with a recital dance
when John Cage's cow bells ring
by shimmering rhythmic feet
from a past of preferred professions
to a new era of liberty for us
where we were once all merged
in a chorus to belong
for we poets wish no longer
are to be lyrically estranged
from a choral song
but represented in part
as in Homer's oral tradition
from the ancients' throng
in a show boat floral procession
with questions to follow
on a displaced float
getting an answer on canvas
stayed on a variety of location
as to why art was directing you
Jasper, to monitor, install
and capture innovation as we recall
your vocation in our celebrity
cultural society for all
representing an art of  tomorrow
on our corridor's graffiti wall.