Mastodon, unlovely thing
Woe betide you in the modern world
Your flanks are ancient and sagging
Your tail drags
And you shift this way and that
Over matters of no importance.
I'm reminded of Pablo Neruda,
Deluded and ever ready for a fight.
Even his best friend Paz was afraid
Of the thing he had become.
And his beautiful, terrifying verse
Served to channel all he'd done.
Art, you Faustian comrade
I hate you but am at your mercy
Insofar as you aspire to philosophy
I will hate you with a fervor,
For paint and music are lovely things
Which children cling to forever.
4 comments:
Never read any Neruda. Recommendations?
Good poem. I like the cleanliness of the first stanza. Hints of Brendan Perry. Interesting observation about 'art' being kinda the last bastion of childhood (childish?) magic in the world, though I think the concept of art and its purpose is probably as hotly debated as who's god can beat up who's.
Hey, thanks about the poem. And hello?? Jesus can beat up all the other so-called 'gods' put together, cause he's the Son of God who came back to redeem our sins. Duh...
Re: Pablo Neruda. I definitely have some faves, but I'll have to find and grab my book to get the titles. Overall I dislike his politics quite a bit and am ambivalent about the man himself (now passed on), but this never stopped anyone from being a good artist (writer), of course. Some of my favorite artists of all stripes were ardent communists, fascists, and what have you.
I'll get back to you with some names, which you can then look up on one of several web sites featuring his stuff. Or you can begin to browse yourself as most if not all of his poems are in the publics domain.
His erstwhile friend Octavio Paz is also well worth checking out. While I find some of his political stuff tedious, he also produced simple gems that, not unlike Plath, would use common words (especially verbs) in uncommon ways, often to beautiful effect. I don't have a book of him, unfortunately, but would like to get one.
Some of his stuff is also available on the web, though since he only died in 1998, not all of it. Good luck! I'll either post back or email you with some actual poems of Neruda or both of these guys so you can see what you think.
By the way both won the Nobel Prize for Literature at some point in their careers - not bad.
And regarding art. While I certainly agree art has been intellectualized, politicized, and bourne the whole mantle of function in our world, it is at its best (and my favorite) when it's "just art" - a lovely thing for no other purpose. I suppose this is a Wildean idea, although he was a bit coy when saying these things as his art was charged with social commentary to the hilt. But still, art has been used by all sides as propaganda, philosophical soapboxes, and god knows what else, and it serves these puposes well, but a good piece of art separated from any context (you sit and read or observe it without knowing anything about the artist or his politics) and which is still utterly moving is the best art of all. Although it may intrinsically have much to say; I don't mean the art itself should be pastoral and "about" nothing. I just feel over the centuries it's been co-opted by others for their own non-artistic purposes, which is deplorable.
And yes, art is a bit like Faust's devil, for once one become an artist or begins to think of reality in terms of arts, one tends to develop a backwards view of life AS art, and to form grand philosophies about our existence, which may end up just being total bullshit. I've certainly fallen into this trap more than once! My best poems are always just observation sans the commentary (explicit or subversive) and the didacticism. It may still be there, implied, but any heavy-handed attempt to make a poem or a painting "philosophy" is likely to cross the line into pretentiousness. We should leave that up to the art critics and historians, and strive as artists to be as pure as possible.
Although this is, obviously, impossible. We sell our soul the moment we pick up a pen or brush.
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