Who Are the Artists? a poem by Mike Turner at Spillwords.com

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Who Are the Artists?

Mike Turner·March 31, 2025

Poetry English

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Who Are the Artists?

written by: Mike Turner

Who are the artists
If not the prophets of the age?
Hair-shirted
Wandering individual deserts
Minds feverish
Seeking their truths
Expressed in prose, poetry, song, paint, wood, stone
Each the media best suited
To ability and muse
Heedless yet hopeful of encountering others
Individuals, groups, multitudes
To be baptized in offered waters
Seeing and hearing what is expounded
Signifying what is expressed
Forming their own interpretation
Reaching their own conclusion
Through the prisms of needs and desires
Hopes and fears and dreams
The artist hoping for understanding
Connection, recognition, immortality
Few attaining even momentary notice
Most ignored, misunderstood, lost
Their works, unmoving
The masses, unmoved
Yet their issue being no less true
For their ignominy
For truth was imbued in the act of creation
And glimmers as a gemstone
Though concealed beneath dust and rock
Its essence unrevealed
Yet no less prophetic
Awaiting discovery
For who are the artists
If not the prophets of the age?

About
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Mike Turner

Mike Turner is a songwriter and poet living on the US Gulf Coast. Named 2017 Male Gospel Entertainer of the Year by the North America Country Music Associations International, Mike’s original songs have received airplay in the US, UK, Ireland, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and on the US Armed Forces Radio Network. He is co-founder of Music For World Peace Records, an indie record label specializing in original songs that promote world peace and oppose war. Mike’s poetry has been published in numerous print and on-line journals and anthologies; his first published poem was placed with Spillwords in 2019. His poetry collection, “Visions and Memories,” was published in 2021 by Sweetycat Press.

Eamon O'Leary

Eamon lives with his wife Ruth in Carriglaine on the edge of the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland. A late comer to the writing scene, his first book, I'm a Big Boy Now, saw the light of day last November, well after his 72nd birthday. A collection of humorous childhood memories gives the reader a passport to an Irish boyhood in a less frantic, more adventurous age, reliving a time of skinned knees and home-made go-karts, clean dirt, Saturday night baths, and the kind of candy that'd nearly cost you your teeth. Back when it always seemed to snow at Christmas, the summers were long and golden and the friendships were forever. Eamon is also a regular contributor to RTE Radio, Ireland's National Broadcaster, where he reads his vignettes in the Word in Edgeways slot.

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