I Like Musicians
I like musicians and will offer
freely to their hat.
Wise the beggar who can get a coin
from my purse, for it will multiply
it could turn into emerald worlds.
But what you get from me needs to be held
not quickly spent.
How can you do that?
Allow a fire in your gaze to occur
something you want to see that was hiding
in the invisible
will begin to step forward
and grow in you.
Gibran knew the value of the artist, the poet, the musician, the author. They can light the fire unseen and draw the intangible out of us. In his November 10, 1911 letter he writes: "There is an old Arabic song which begins, "Only God and I know what is in my heart" - and today, after rereading your last three letters, I said out loud "Only God and Mary and I know what is in my heart." I would open my heart and carry it in my hand so that others may know also; for there is no deeper desire than the desire of being revealed. We all want the little light in us to be taken from under the bushel. The first poet must have suffered much when the cave-dwellers laughed at his mad words. He would have given his bow and arrows and lion skin, everything he possessed, just to have his fellow-men know the delight and the passion which the sunset had created in his soul. And yet, is it not this mystic pain - the pain of not being known - that gives birth to art and artists? It is surely a noble thing to say "art for art's sake" but is it not nobler to open they eyes of the blind so that they may share the silent joy of your days and nights? True Art should be made practical by revealing its beauty to people - I said practical because anything that adds to our world of vision is practical."
Art does add to our world of vision as Gibran mused. Art often times creates the sunset within the soul that Gibran has so poetically explained. And while Art (and the liberal arts) are not always seen as pragmatic pursuits, Gibran expands our definition of practical to anything that adds beauty to this world. Perhaps that is the better way to analyze if our endeavors are "worth it".
Below is an untitled painting by Gibran. Perhaps it is the hand of God cradling man. Perhaps it is a lover offering a resting place. Perhaps it is something that brings someone, somewhere, a sunrise within.
I like musicians and will offer
freely to their hat.
Wise the beggar who can get a coin
from my purse, for it will multiply
it could turn into emerald worlds.
But what you get from me needs to be held
not quickly spent.
How can you do that?
Allow a fire in your gaze to occur
something you want to see that was hiding
in the invisible
will begin to step forward
and grow in you.
Gibran knew the value of the artist, the poet, the musician, the author. They can light the fire unseen and draw the intangible out of us. In his November 10, 1911 letter he writes: "There is an old Arabic song which begins, "Only God and I know what is in my heart" - and today, after rereading your last three letters, I said out loud "Only God and Mary and I know what is in my heart." I would open my heart and carry it in my hand so that others may know also; for there is no deeper desire than the desire of being revealed. We all want the little light in us to be taken from under the bushel. The first poet must have suffered much when the cave-dwellers laughed at his mad words. He would have given his bow and arrows and lion skin, everything he possessed, just to have his fellow-men know the delight and the passion which the sunset had created in his soul. And yet, is it not this mystic pain - the pain of not being known - that gives birth to art and artists? It is surely a noble thing to say "art for art's sake" but is it not nobler to open they eyes of the blind so that they may share the silent joy of your days and nights? True Art should be made practical by revealing its beauty to people - I said practical because anything that adds to our world of vision is practical."
Art does add to our world of vision as Gibran mused. Art often times creates the sunset within the soul that Gibran has so poetically explained. And while Art (and the liberal arts) are not always seen as pragmatic pursuits, Gibran expands our definition of practical to anything that adds beauty to this world. Perhaps that is the better way to analyze if our endeavors are "worth it".
Below is an untitled painting by Gibran. Perhaps it is the hand of God cradling man. Perhaps it is a lover offering a resting place. Perhaps it is something that brings someone, somewhere, a sunrise within.
Gibran's Art
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