Below is something that’ll be posted at www.ManhattanArts.com in September.

…Three O’Clock in the Morning: Poetry, Art and You
How people view art is a function of…? The Role of Soul.
by Richard Oxman

Welcome to my not-quite-weekly column. A very short time ago, I had set it up with Manhattan Arts to submit weekly segments of my novel in lieu of a column, but –upon reflection– it seemed like I might lose you prematurely (to the vortex of my challenging chapters), so…let’s begin with this creature, and see  how it goes. Contingent upon what feedback I receive from the column*, I may very well start posting some fiction soon.

*Column? In fact, submissions will be posted by MA as their workload permits. Looks like ongoing articles until further notice.

Below is a Billy Collins poem (”Introduction to Poetry”) which Jeanette Winterson’s site turned me onto recently. If you don’t know one or the other…that can be your first assignment. Seriously, it would good to have such follow-up with readers, as I don’t name drop lightly.

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a colour slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
And feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Of course, it’s a no-brainer that with-it souls like us are not going to torture the meaning out of an artwork. Oui? But how on earth do we get people to “waterski” across a given canvas? Or “waterski” into our sculpture? And so on.

Let’s take our first spot quiz, artists, shall we? Multiple choice…to make it easy. To wit, which of the following should be embraced to achieve our goal of having appreciators of art NOT play Guantanamo* with our beloved creations?

*Btw, just a little side note: My computer has placed a wiggly red line under Guantanamo, putting it into the same category, I guess, as “colour” and “waterski” from Billy’s poem; words spelled incorrectly…or improper in some way? Hmmm.

Spot Quiz:
a. Don’t have people who you wouldn’t invite to dinner (and have fun with) exhibit your artwork.

b. Don’t show up for an Opening dressed as if (or posing as if) you know something important that others don’t.

c. Don’t leave hoses all around the gallery.

d. Don’t work (in your heartsweat) for pay.

I’ll let readers have some fun on their own with the above until next time ’round, but I do want to say something about the last choice before closing now. That is, that the undeniable economics of literature do not determine aesthetic supremacy…as we know. Ditto respecting the art world.

“Introduction to Poetry” was not written with a cash consciousness. I know that for a fact ’cause I know all about Billy Collins, Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. I don’t know all of his poetry, but I do know his character.

Aesthetic supremacy is not determined by anything remotely related to economics, and neither is deep audience electricity. Readers of poems will not press their ears against the hive of a given poem if it’s created for the wrong reasons. I use that phrase for want of a better expression.

Another way? They will not “feel the walls for a light switch” if you’ve put a product before them. Rather, they will pull out their poor man’s pocket flashlight to peruse your lines.

I run a poetry club in Los Gatos, California, and we call it The Three O’Clock in the Morning Mourning Club ’cause in the deepest part of everyone’s soul it’s always 3 o’clock in the A.M. Your artwork must be created at 3:00 A.M. only…even if it’s actually Noon.

Edna St. Vincent Millay told me that in hushed tones –when I was seven-years-old!– up at her beloved Steepletop in Austerlitz, New York…not long before she died. She had been talking about poetry and artwork of all kinds and degrees. If you’re one of the unlucky ones who don’t know who she was, do look her up.

Dr. Samuel Johnson, arguably the greatest literary critic ever, once said, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.” I have a lot of respect for him, but I think I’m going to go with Edna’s flow on this. It was always “3″ for Vincent –as I’d like it to be for you– and, well, let’s end here for now with a few of her lines for you artists:

 ”The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,–
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through….”

Richard Oxman is a former Professor of Dramatic Art and Speech, Comparative Literature, Cinema History, and other disciplines (worldwide), Richard has also been a journalist on the Russian River in Sonoma County, California, a taxi driver in N.Y.C., Director of a Fine Arts gallery on Maui, Hawaii, ESL Instructor in Osaka, Japan, organizer of painting holidays in Southwest France (www.frenchpaintbox.com), tour guide for cemeteries in Paris (www.parisgraves.com), published songerwriter/singer in the ’50s, etc. AND etcetera. He welcomes feedback at rmoxman@yahoo.com…and encourages readers to review his wife’s amazing touches at http://sosylvie.typepad.com, his seven-year-old’s offerings at www.marcelsgeo.blogspot.com, and/or to visit the family vintage furnishings shop (www.blossomhome.com) in Los Gatos, California.