A column by Ren Powell, Big Tent Poetry Sideshow Barker
There are art objects that serve an of-this-world utilitarian purpose, be it drinking tea or shaping ideology. They provide us with an aesthetic and often intellectual experience. And there are art experiences, where the art object itself becomes or conjures a metaphor: the vehicle for Aristotle and Plato’s mimesis, the experience that allows us to sense the metaphysical truth. It parallels religious experience in that it is both sensory and transcendent of the senses and logic.
While the political poem or religious poem may incite our passions and rouse us to act, the art-for-art’s sake poem doesn’t elicit a response: it simply is and, through its being, allows us to experience metaphysical truth …
Click on the excerpt to read the entire article. Check our About page for a list of other Sideshow Barkers, friends of Big Tent Poetry who are generous enough to share with us their columns, interviews and reviews. There is no set schedule for these appearances; willy-nilly is a symptom of creative genius!