Artistic Endeavors

Withdraw
into your beautiful lives
for as long as they will last;

see the Grand Canyon
or Macchu Picchu
for the first time, or again;

sit and read a book of lovely poems
that excite in you the longing
for creation or at least experience.

Forget, for a moment,
that there are those who long
for the violent sting of hurt

that lets them know they are alive;
who steal their moments
of beauty from others, who create

the fear that puts peace
into perspective.  Forget them
because to recall them too closely

or too often may lead you to consider
a truth or two that you have forgotten
about invention and art: that some

of the greatest art ever made
is laid into the backs of swords
and guns, that there are suits of armor

that are etched as delicately
as any gemstone’s setting, and that
men recreated the Sun here on Earth

strictly to keep from getting too close
to the others
they desperately wanted to kill.