Arvo Part

Portrait of Arvo Part
(2011 by Michael) 

"I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played.  This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me."

— Arvo Part

Estonian Classical Composer

1935 -

Many of the poems I have written are full of simple words and simple images.  I spent seven years early in my career writing haiku, a Japanese poetic form, that has a maximum of 17 syllables.  Most of my haiku are less than 17 syllables.  Here is one with four words and six syllables.

pregnant —

    she weeds

       carrots

Here is one with three words and six syllables.

spider

    underfoot —

        squash

For me, it is what is not said sometimes that is as important as what is said.  Listen to the silences between the words — the silences within the images, the silences between the notes.  Some writers are lavish with their words and sentences.  One of my favorites is John Irving.  His novels are written as circles within circles — very complex in construction and development and I enjoy them.  Some writers, artists and musicians seek simplicity in their work.  Arvo Part, the Estonian composer, is one of them.

Here is a track from his album, Alina.  Enjoy the pictures as well as the music.

We need both the simple and the complex in our lives.  If you are complex artist, seek simplicity in a few of your works.  If you are a simple artist, seek complexity.  And don't be fooled into thinking simple works are not as good as complex works.  Sometimes simple works are harder to create than complex works.  In a 500 page novel, you can make a few mistakes and nobody will notice.  In a haiku, one wrong word will ruin the haiku.

Here is a short poem, I wrote back in March 2011.

Your breath,

a feather

of love,

touches my ear.

I listen

to the moon

and cry softly.

(The portrait of Arvo Part above was done by Michael.  Check out his blog, Red. Yellow. Blue.)

Weldon Kees

"Modern society pushes people in the groove.  Although I was always interested in music and painting as well as poetry, at first I thought I had to concentrate on writing. . . one thing only.  But then the urge to paint was so strong I just went ahead and started oils.  And I didn't give up my writing — one did not exclude the other."

Weldon Kees

American Poet, Painter, Composer, Short Story Writer

1914 - 1955

As a creative leader, do you limit you creative expression to one type of art?  The common myth is that people can only do one thing.  Write poetry?  Paint portraits?  Compose music?  Write novels?  The myth is that we should focus on only one form of expression; otherwise, we will dilute our creativity not not do anything well.  We have become a society of specialists.  Painters should not write.  Writers should not play a musical instrument.  Actors should not write.

Kees believed that he could both paint and write.  "He said, "Shifting from one to the other I don't get into periods of absolute sterility that are often experienced by writers who just write, or painters who just paint."

Are you suffering from writer's block?  Pick up a paint brush and explore the world of color. Are you bored with painting?  Pick up a pen and write about your feelings.  Flipping back and forth between various art forms will keep you and your ideas fresh.

Here is a poem by Weldon Kees.

The Upstairs Room

It must have been in March the rug wore through.

Now the day passes and I stare

At warped pine boards my father's father nailed,

At the twisted grain.  Exposed, where emptiness allows,

Are the wormholes of eighty years; four generations' shoes

Stumble and scrape and fall

To the floor my father stained,

The new blood streaming from his head.  The drift

Of autumn fires and a century's cigars, that gun's

Magnanimous and brutal smoke, endure.

In March the rug was ragged as the past.  The thread

Rots like the lives we fasten on.  Now it is August,

And the floor is blank, worn smooth,

And, for my life, imperishable.

Martin Luther

"Music is the art of the prophets, the only art that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us."

— Martin Luther

German Priest, Theologian, Bible Translator, Hymn Composer

1483 - 1546

For those who have not heard of Martin Luther, he was a Catholic priest who inspired the Prostestant Reformation in 1517 by nailing his 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany.  He helped change the course of Christianity.  I heard about Martin Luther early in my life, but I never knew that he translated the Bible from Latin to German or that he composed hymns.  He had a creative nature.

And I believe as does Martin Luther that music heals the soul and takes us to a whole other world.  Do you listen to music when your write or paint?  What kind of music inspires your creativity?  And if you compose music, are you ever inspired by a painting or a novel?  I believe the arts are intertwined and interconnected and touch our souls at a deep level.

John Cage

"As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency."

— John Cage

American Composer, Author and Artist

1912 - 1992

There is a desire on the part of human beings to make their lives consistent and we become disillusioned when we find that our heroes don't live up to our ideals.  Life is not consistent despite how much we wish it was.  Life is messy, disorganized and inconsistent.  As creative leaders we do not always live up to our ideals.  We make mistakes, screw-up and form bad habits.  Art at its core is inconsistent and messy.  Every picture we paint, every story we write or song we compose is different in nature and form.  Learn to accept the inconsistencies in your life and in the lives of those you love.  You are only human.

Paul Gauguin

Self Portrait, 1893

"Poor artist!  You gave away part of your soul when you painted the picture which you are now trying to dispose of."

— Paul Gauguin

French Artist

1848 - 1903

Tahitian Women on the Beach

1891

The ying and the yang for most artists is the conflict between the passion for creating and the need to eat, between time spend painting and time spend selling.  How do we balance these two opposites?  Most of us would prefer to paint, to write and to compose, but we also have the need to feed our families and to a lesser extent ourselves.  Some people take jobs teaching.  Others work in business.  The poet Wallace Stevens spent his career as a lawyer for an insurance company.  How do you balance the need for creating art and the need for cash to live?

Ferruccio Busoni

"The function of the creative artist consists of making laws, not in following laws already made."

— Ferruccio Busoni

Italian Composer, Pianist

1866 - 1924

When I teach people how to speak, I always tell them to learn the rules of speaking, but to understand that they can break every rule.  Speaking is an art, not a science.  Creative leaders understand that there are rules and techniques governing their art, but they have the right to break the rules.  Creative leaders are willing to take a risk and attempt something that lesser artists are unwilling to risk.  If you study the long history of the arts, you will see the pattern — every generation breaks the rules of the older generations and makes new rules.  Think of the changes the impressionists, the cubists and the abstract expressionists  made to art in the last 150 years.  Think about the rules that writers and musicians have broken in the past and continue to break today.  What risks are you taking with your art?  What rules have you been willing to bend and break?  What new rules have you put in their place.  In art, nothing is absolute.