Of Violence and Art -- A Poem by B. A. Oard

[Yet another forgotten poem from the mid-1990s.]


Of Violence and Art


The fist inside the heart,
feel it clenching, pounding
to be free.


This is the violence that art does,


the sound beneath the skin
the cry from ancient wine
sunlight's jagged fire on the surface of the sea


sussurration of a mountain stream
creaming a crevice hidden in the trees


a bone bleached white and beached
by the leaving sea...


Feel its fist inside the heart,
feel it clenching, pounding
your self free.