On Public Art and the Longevity of an Idea
Submitted by ryann on Sun, 06/27/2010 - 18:37.
If the explanation it requires
is short
or not necessary at all,
an idea can last.
If the explanation it requires
is long, needing students
and postulators to translate
and decipher
an idea can last ⎯
it can endure.
It is the middler that is the concern,
the one without champion
the one with the gaping
hole, and folding hands,
the scrap of music from a reel to reel,
a stone chipped fragment
from a forgotten language,
someone’s cherished thing,
once of the midnight drive
once of the smiling girl by the junction,
once of the moment,
real and crumbling,
he who may not find a friend
in the loping crowd
who inherits ideas from the dead ⎯
who will spark to the great middler
the great I did
who pronounced so beautifully
his causes
into the mirror.
Linda Ravenswood's work has appeared in print in the US and internationally. On public art and the longevity of an idea is from a series of poems first printed by BlazeVOX Books. She is presently in Los Angeles working on a Fulbright grant to do public space reclamation in Athens, Greece in 2011.
