The Seven Deadly Sins of (and Necessary Steps toward) Making Art

Pure art is, in a sense, pure innocence.

But artists are, in themselves, putrid with paradox.

The following seven sins/steps should help the wretched

to remember: the pitfalls are the progress!

1. DEADLINES

Aka Avalanche Everlasting,

Opportunity Oppression.

“You will miss me then I’m gone…”

All at once a million kinds of calendar.

2. MOTIVATION

Ask yourself:	What is my longing?
Answer yourself:	I long for the world, in the form of a person, which is me, in the form of a new world, in the form of a new person, which is the new me, in the form… ad infinitum.

3. GOALS

Stop staring out that old woman’s window like a cat.

4. DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN “SAYING” AND “DOING”

“Everyone dies”

is different from

“Everyone died.”

5. SELF-ABSORPTION

This inner spinning, that petty city

the mind built,

robs the psalm of its robe of calm,

my naked voice thin and shrill in the wind.

6. DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR

I’m such a fraud

I can’t even convince you

of my fraudulence.

7. EVERYDAY MAGIC!

The new burn on my knuckle,

white, shiny, raised:

our dinner’s afterlife, lingering ghost.