For Iris Murdoch
‘All art is a struggle to be,
in a particular sort of way, virtuous.’
she’s talking with that awful haircut
only ameliorated by a shy smile
thoughts arrive in her head
like a bull she charges at them
a philosophy tutor at Oxford
always ready to make an argument
It’s wonderful to see her so I know
we are very different in that way
thoughts arrive in my mind
blossoming into interconnecting maps
wild tendrils of expanding ideas,
my motivation is creative imagination
She’s dissecting myriad ways
that art and philosophy diverge:
mystification versus clarification
claiming art’s deep purpose is to impose form;
turn life’s rubble into something admirable
bolstering our shaky foundations
Philosophy is repetitive
a critical analysis of presuppositions,
an unnatural game
conceptual structure and significance
argument not self-expression
forceful, persuasive, analytic, and clear
Art, being mimetic, is natural,
everyone loves to be told a story
the use of creativity helps it be,
in a special way, true
mystic underpinning of mundane experience
intimate, sculpting, suggestive, and provoking
Fantasy’s a destructive menace,
suffocating intimacy with the reader
philosophy may damage art too,
obscuring sublimity and beauty
and so we come to understand:
to create great art
we leave room for imaginative space
A wilderness where psychology intersects story,
myth infringes on structure,
where the entirety of existence
skims the border of the embodied and
our being encounters transformation
Linked to dVerse Open Link Night http://dversepoets.com/2012/03/13/openlinknight-week-35/
Chromapoetica 
there is a wicked truth in that last stanza…we as the artist have to allow the person to experience it where they will…their imagination making it theirs…
great to see you
Precisely. Wow, you’re really on your game. I haven’t posted in over a month and here you are early commenting on my potential OLN entry :)! Do you have a robot assistant?
Philosophy comes from a different angle, one which I’m not sure I much understand. So I guess I’m more for just letting art just be.
“Art, being mimetic, is natural,
everyone loves to be told a story
the use of creativity helps it be,
in a special way, true
mystic underpinning of mundane experience
intimate, sculpting, suggestive, and provoking”
I need this bit pinned somewhere near where I work, I think.
Nice to see you back, Anna! 🙂
Yes, Iris had to keep her writing purposes clear as she wrote both philosophy and fiction. I am glad to be back, thank you very much for stopping by. I will be by tomorrow to read what you’ve been writing (it’s very late here :)).
eep writing is not art?
how do you know if you are dreaming a destructive fantasy
or exploring room for imagination or creativity?
psychology and philosophy also feel interwoven to me.
colour me muddled or perhaps wanting to
hold all the web of things together in your interconnected maps =)
i cut my hair recently and it is as bad as hers, crooked fringes ftw =).
welcome back
Oh, I think writing is art. She’s making an argument which I’ve wrestled into a poem to make a point, probably to myself, that when I put a philosophical argument at the core of my writing I don’t always leave room for imaginative space. Her point about fantasy, which I’d call wishful thinking, is perhaps not about dreaming or living but about writing. Writing full of the writer’s fantasies doesn’t leave room for the reader to exist in the imaginative space, it confines the story or characters too much, putting the writer’s psychological needs above the reader. Does that make sense?
Sorry to hear about the haircut :).
It makes perfect sense. Thank you.
hey Anna
as always a fantastic write up..
its a pleasure to read u
visiting after a very long time
hope u doing fine 🙂
Hello Jyoti! I hope you are well; it has been too long :)! Also, I can’t seem to comment anymore at your blog (maybe because I’m no longer on Facebook?) so here it is: If only we spent more time reaching out and less time concerned with our own self interest. Often not seeing the value of another is simply a way to raise ourselves higher. Education saved me from poverty and in America is one of the few ways people move from one socio-economic class to another. Though we often use education to indoctrinate young people and reinforce discrimination. Tough issues you raise here.
hey Anna
m perfectly fine 🙂
Always great to get your feedback !!
been busy in exams lately, now will try to read u more often… keep posting..
Good luck on your exams :)!
they r over now 😀
Always tackling the most difficult things to articulate– and doing so admirably. A strong and interesting poem turning on a dialectic I often think of as well. xxxj http://parolavivace.blogspot.com .
Thank you, it never quite sat still even after I left it a few months and revised it again. In a strange way its struggle is appropriate to the subject I’m trying to articulate. I am glad to know it engages and is something you’ve thought of too.
yes. my goal as a poet has always been to leave that space, the one the reader lives in.
this was brilliant!
Thanks Kelly; I think you succeed!
A beautiful write, Anna.
Thank you kindly ayala :).
A wilderness where psychology intersects story,
myth infringes on structure,
where the entirety of existence
skims the border of the embodied and
our being encounters transformation….love this anna…and also great reading you again… sometimes we stab the art that is created with our own limitations…we should allow those wilderness to get into our hearts and burst them open..
That’s an excellent suggestion Claudia. I must admit to being afraid at times. It isn’t always easy to balance the concerns of my analytical mind, adventurous spirit, and wild heart. Thank you for the insight!
Hello, Anna! Your poetry is always so colorful… the images pop, with a twist of complexity and bravery. grand!
Thank you Anthony, not surprisingly I cherish the colorful comment.
Welcome back Anna:)
Very Interesting poem. I guess we will always defend what is dearest to us, sometimes its art sometimes philosophy and sometimes its both.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one.
Yes, I keep trying to find the line of infusion, where the art’s philosophical sphere supports rather than obscures its sublimity and beauty. Always a challenge and motivator to create. Thanks for the feedback :).
It’s so true. I often look at a piece of modern art and wonder what the heck makes it so special. I guess it is all seen differently as we are all different and we see things from different aspects too.
Lovely imagery Anna.
We make assumptions about readers/viewers but as creators we can never know how a certain work will be received and translated through the spectrum of the consumer’s psyche. Art as a form of communication carries its own set of challenges. Coming to terms with those difficulties is a lifelong source of inspiration and frustration.
Really well crafted tale of conflicting perspectives. I love the descriptions of the philosophy tutor, the way that she dissects with theory. But herein lies the oxymoron- there is ONLY theory- be that of the philosopher or the artist. Neither is right or wrong. All there is is subjectivity and experiences and interpretations as we see them. That’s what makes art, poetry, painting so special – it will always been seen differently by every single person. Nothing you get this across in a really well crafted and beautifully described piece. Thoroughly enjoyed
Yes, so true, yet the analytic perspective always asserts a misplaced dominance I think. When we get into the fallability of perception science reminds us that those hard facts are all too often squishy. Thank you for the engaging comment and kind compliment.
Everyone loves to be told a story, and I have so missed your writing. A blue ribbon from me and a smile from my heart. Excellent job.
Thanks Henry, that’s made my day :)!
I enjoyed being drawn in, invited to see something new here. My favorite stanza is this:
Art, being mimetic, is natural,
everyone loves to be told a story
the use of creativity helps it be,
in a special way, true
mystic underpinning of mundane experience
intimate, sculpting, suggestive, and provoking
Love those lines, the words, the images…
So glad I happened by here from dVerse tonight!
Thanks for stopping by; very nice to meet you!
Anna.. lovely to see you back in the writing seat.
I felt myself skimming through the elegance of these ideas, caught in the imaginative space I make with you when I read your work.. ideas are always embodied, how can they be anything else? I love how you bring the whole to the image of reader and writer.. that encounter and the potential for transformation. I skidded on the harshness of the fantasy judgment.. I can think of many things more destructive.. might there not be room for encounter there too? Psychological fantasy..?
I could see that though I’m not sure Dame Murdoch would soften her stance on fantasy as she claimed to fight under Plato’s banner as a philosopher. I think she must have struggled greatly with these very issues; why else would she write fiction at all? Thank you for your thoughts, I always enjoy encountering them :).
Great to see you at the Pub again, Anna, hope all has been well. This poem’s defense of poetry is charged by a long conversation between your artist and philosopher, since I know you’ve seeped a long time in both … Reminds me greatly of my own conversations over lunch with a security guard at the newspaper I worked at for almost 2 decades, the guy reading on deeply in philosophy after having to give up hopes for doctorate in it after moving his family from New York to Florida, me working as a corporate communicator and taking my lunchtimes to read into myth and poetry. The rigor of philosophical analysis is really something to behold, and yet there’s a yearning on that side of the fence to know that can only be expressed in the thing it won’t allow into its Republic (Plato wanted to ban poets, or poetics.) We’ve been lifelong friends since (he did manage to get his doctorate and is now happily teaching), ever at an irresolute conversation, much like every human relationship. And neither discipline is worth much in the commercial world where we have to earn a living. Sigh. Your summations here about what the artist does and provides the tribe would not have found eloquence without challenges from without and within. Great work, Anna — and now, as Elizabeth Bishop said, all you can do is “write it!” – Brendan
Yes, sometimes the arguments that create the most intense internal debate provide the richest soil for creation. I distinctly remember my favorite philosophy professor sitting me down for a several hour conversation which distilled into there’s no future in philosophy, 300 applicants for the only teaching position that had opened up in 20 years, all qualified and capable. His advice, stay with my Biology major. I stopped taking philosophy classes and didn’t take a single english course in college though I have been writing since I could read (at 3). All the things I love are undervalued. Maybe that’s why we poets have taken up residence in virtual space. I will take Ms. Bishop’s advice and I always appreciate your insights and stories.
I always love how you can take a thought and spread its meaning, essence, spirit across so vast a canvas so successfully, Anna. Art, philosophy, personal… it’s all here. Wonderful work! ~ J
Thank you Joe, it’s because I have no sense of scale and too much ambition :D.
I think you’re just right, Anna!
Anna, I can’t tell you how much I love this! I’ve read it more than once, twice…I think three times…haaa.
I am so inexperienced with writing poetry that I’ve struggled with this concept quite a bit. I write something with connections that seem very straightforward to me, but the piece is clearly puzzling to others.
”and so we come to understand:
to create great art
we leave room for imaginative space”
You have certainly succeeded here : ) Thank you and again, I just love this piece. So nice to see you!
Gosh, I’m blushing, thank you. Oh, I never write pieces that puzzle others. Ouch, I just hurt myself laughing :)! So nice to be back.
Lol!
I am coming here for the first time…..enjoyed the write. Thank you for sharing. I am sure i will come back again. Though i too write poems i have lot of things to learn.
I try to keep my poetry varied and interesting so I hope you do return; very nice to meet you. I look forward to reading your work.
Your first poem back & it’s still not about Lucy & me! Geez. Iris Murdoch! Love the poem, love you.
I wrote it long before you and Lucy made my every day in Tulsa special :). Also, how could I possibly capture you in poetry, I’d need to write another epic! Surely you read Witnesses which is for you and Grandma Graham. If not, here’s the link http://chromapoesy.com/2011/09/13/witnesses/. I love you and your little dog too!
Anna- I really enjoyed this and can relate to:
thoughts arrive in my mind
blossoming into interconnecting maps
wild tendrils of expanding ideas,
my motivation is creative imagination
Thanks Laurie! Also, if you were looking for my response to Charles’ prompt Meeting the Bar: Filling in the Gaps it’s here http://chromapoesy.com/2011/10/29/what-remains-unsaid/.