What Does Your Heart Say?

The river to the soul flows with blood until it spills over for the soul to sober.

Art speaks volumes about who someone is or was when they were on this earth. Were they hopeless romantics writing sweet nothings to past sparks? Or were they tortured souls that drenched themselves in surrealist depression for all of us to see? If you’re a great enough artist, then classes are made to analyze your art and life and how they meet in the middle to create greatness. Or tragedy. The life of the artist can be fragile at times. Often showing signs of what we hide from the public eye. But why is that?

Personally, I hide bits and pieces of my life in my poetry lines, hoping for others to read between them and see me for whatever I genuinely am that day. This comes from a lack of communication skills that are now replaced by charisma built from constant interaction. Depending on the day, that mask slips away, and my honest thoughts and feelings come into play. It’s my artist’s heart that has a lot to say. 

There's preeminence in everything artists do. Look at Jackson Pollock, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Osamu Dazai, or Sylvia Plath. Still, souls are so tortured that some intentionally and unintentionally cut their lives short. Some pondered about life’s very meaning in their work. We could see it. We could never see it coming, but we saw them. Genuinely for who they were. Blood poured, and we drank it until their wells ran dry. Their art never lied. 

Yet, not every artist needs to feel tortured to produce something from the heart. Any emotion can be just as accurate as the pain so many feel. You don’t have to kill to feel. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have artists like Tyler the Creator, Jacob Collier, and Stevie Wonder. They breathe joy into the art they make. They can’t help but feel a smile creep up whenever you hear them talk about it. And you end up smiling, too. These souls create happily. There’s no blood to spill as their blood keeps them going. 

Art can say a lot about a soul. Whether it’s tortured or reveling in the sun, it is who it is. Moons and suns. We hold them dear for all they gave for the rivers they spewed, leading to many life-changing art givers. I hope whatever art you produce makes you feel real. Just stay alive and create. Let your heart lead the way.