We Humans and Art by Jim Wishman

We humans paint pictures of vistas we’ve seen

Postcards of nature poised and pristine

Of pleasing composition, of colour and form

With masterful rendition and skills above norm

Behold a beauty caught timeless today

Forever admired in a visual way

A triumph to please us every time

But often we seek something sublime

We humans are of nature and evolutions’ grand

We give things a meaning and insights we demand

There’s no mystery in the simplicity of appreciative sighs

We probe – we seek the light behind each other’s eyes

Metaphors well framed invite reflective thought

To think perhaps again on what we have been taught

Fundamental things weighty in our lives

Of ego, of belief, of loss. Of our instinct to survive

We humans aspire to a dream like place

A garden of plenty being laid to waste

How beguiling the quest to make earth a heaven

Of favour so false future folk will fathom

Pure art inflects gentle metaphors

Asking us questions of what’s gone before

Answers may lurk in sombre reflections

Which light our mind and seed our perceptions

We humans live perceptions, false truths of belief

Rote lives needing holidays to get some relief

Can art elevate us to a place of better view

To lose ourselves and find something new?

Some believe in God, afterlife, and all things pure

It sanctifies the sacrifices our modern earth endures

New science we adapt to rule natures course

But we’ve grown apart and it feels like divorce

We humans love artists born driven to create

Sources of light shining reason on our fate

In the shadow of tyranny, it’s easy to forget

What’s now gone, without any feared threat

For what is art? What is the essence of its being?

What compels us to create? And does it need to have a meaning?

Art is the lungs of our mind, reviving our senses each day

Breathing meaning into our dreams, in a magical way

What are we up to we human beings?

With our civilisation of constant needings

Is nature our friend or a foe to be tamed

Has life become an intellectual game

Of human advances over natures fragility

An ascension beyond our own humility

How does art find its place in our balance of values?

Where’s its meaning and how openly do we choose?

We humans feel and art lives in our soul

Art reflects feelings, emotion keeping us whole

Our artists must hold a special like place

Without them life’s just a boring human race

Artists feed us something we know we need

A bond of community, we are a social breed

Humble and brave they dedicate their lives

To ask the confoundingly ancient question: Why?