Tradition and Change

Have Flagellation
Self immolation
Flayed flesh and disembowelled bodies
Displayed with astounding frequency on
Our screens
Inured us to
Life
Love
Art and beauty

Tradition is both reference
And restraint
Comfort and constraint
Materials and methods
Evolve
Ideas mutate

From the esoteric to the erotic
From banal to blatant
From childlike delight to
Fierce anguish

What is obscene
Is not an isolated body part
On a screen
In a time

When all the right questions
Are getting
All the wrong
Answers

What remains is
Love
Life
Art and beauty

Some traditions must change.
To be transmuted as
Symbolism, iconography, even
Iconoclasticy
To tell a sensual story
The good with the bad.

To express assuage
And not
Exacerbate
Our pain
To nurture
Love of life
Art and beauty