What Art Might Fix" (Reflections on Book: Art As Therapy  - J. Armstrong - Section One)

Let’s say mankind has seven frailties,
Considered here as psychic entities;
Perhaps a dose of art would give a cure,
And make us whole, so we’re no longer poor.

Good artists capture, bring some things to mind;
Selected, held the aloft for all mankind;
Alzheimer’s on the rise – I’d tend to say,
For all of us a picture saves the day.

When hope is lost the boat tips to one side;
Too soon life overwhelms with darker side;
Selections of the brighter times of life
Might help us make it through our darkest night.

Then sorrow’s downcast state is all around –
Seven billion people all to death are bound
Within a century for most, at best;
With art to lift our eyes, how we are blessed.

In desperate straits we soon get out of tune;
Large doses of the missing parts would soon
Rebalance us, until we’re more ourselves –
Should try that soon – for one can never tell.

Four windowpanes describe transparency –
See-in-see-out is clearly part of me;
See in or out – two Windows (our chagrin!);
Opaque both ways – where art might first begin.

Some art repels us; challenges our ways;
Is problematic; looks at us for days;
That’s not all bad, it makes us stretch and grow,
So in the end a better self we’d know.

Of course an on-ramp must be built up first,
Of interest – stimulate internal thirst;
All thought’s a forest – inter-winding trees –
Start anywhere – perspective often frees.

Appreciation comes when someone sees;
We walk right by familiar lawn and trees;
The fifty feet of home and our front door;
We rarely see – through art there so much more.

Perhaps we should commission useful art
To fill some need, to play some vital part
In age and stage of life, and challenge here
Right where we live, and for some hearts so dear.

Then we could write an artist’s “brief” (request) –
“Make me a piece, for with my spouse I’m blessed,
But s/he, I note, is in the doldrums now –
Through art you’ll make I’d like to help somehow.”

Think of your group, or culture, nation-type –
What piece of art could help to make it right?
A.T.’s a way to intermix such themes,
And balance out what author’s story means.

Why, stores and shops could then pick out a theme
Some artist’s focused on, show what it means;
To have some things for sale, push out the bounds,
Such souvenirs would then with thought abound.

So, samples, captions, then whole galleries
Could grow to be far more than histories,
’Till deeper themes of our existence here
Spread out through life, to make our meanings clear.

Thus art could open up our daily lives;
Present the best of what an artist strives
To help us know, thus better do our time
On earth – engage us in a life sublime.

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