Making Art

Risking the Human Toll

By: Charles Giuliano - Apr 13, 2015

Making Art

You can make art
In whatever form
Or have friends
Perhaps not both
Which is why
Some of the best ones
Drink, die young
Have shattered lives
It takes that much
Digging up the stuff
Buried inside
Battered and formed
Traumas of experience
Cannibalizing relationships
Ripping into family
Working on the energy
Oblivious to feelings
Brushing off other opinions
Mad bull
Forging ahead
Monsters and minotaurs
Perhaps celebrated
Emotionally skeletal
By the end
Eaten inside
Consuming cancer of creation
Or not
Making some art
Modest success
Not total gonzo
Small triumphs here and there
Life well lived
Cautious hedonism
Nestled in academia
With tenure
That early demise
End of risk taking
Modestly pushing the
Envelope
The life more protected
Not fully explored
The art game
Has so few
Big winners
When probed
Too often
Biggest losers
Celebrated by
Vicarious vulgarians
Reviled in biographies
Those that knew
Or even loved them
Who respected
No boundaries