Poems on Art

My Art is no art

Without my soul's luminosity.

My Art is no art

Without my heart's purity.

My Art is no art

Without my mind's simplicity.

My Art is the hide-and-seek

Between my soul's illumining smiles

And my heart's streaming tears.

The Artist in me has three

Faithful, sleepless

And self-giving friends:

A newness-eye, a oneness-heart

And a fulness-life.

The heart of my Art

And the heart of a child

Are extremely fond of each other.

They love each other deeply;

They need each other constantly;

They are interdependent, sleeplessly.

My mind says that anything I do

Is too insignificant

Because I am wanting

In qualification.

Needless to say,

This includes my Artwork.

My heart says that anything I do

Is too significant

Because the God-Touch

Is always there.

Needless to say,

This includes my Artwork.

My Art does not want

To subscribe to the view

That unhappiness

Commands the world.

My Art lives

In a familiar dream-boat

With a familiar Boatman

For a dream-flooded Reality-Shore.

When I paint or draw,

I keep my mind's thought-garden

Completely free of self-doubt-weeds.

By: Sri Chinmoy