My Poetry III

Like the desert,
my poetry can absorb you
or spit you out
which isn’t 

 always your choice,
but the poem’s own force
that pleases
or honestly dismays. 

The voice of art 
contained 
in a painting or sculpture,
is just as plain 
as the nose 
you have on your face
and is just as strong
as the impact experienced. 

What it is being said
depends on the way it’s perceived.
That’s the way with art,
since no work of art
is ever the artist’s alone 
since it’s also owned
by the viewer who must own
to observe it.

The art observer’s response
depends on the viewer’s experience,
The memories that experience has left
and the emotions
as the work alone depends on the artist’s
experience.

That’s the contract drawn
between the art and the observer.