The Art Of A Rebel

Maya Deren

I will mix all your opinions
with the tobacco in this cigarette
and taste the smoke as I watch them burn.

I am a woman whose gender
knows the patience of birthing,
yet you ask….no, you demand
I create according to your
formula of immediacy.

Art is not a crying infant taught
to walk in a single day...It is
an open wound carved by devotion
until it speaks its completion.


Creativity whored to profit
sacrifices its vision to explanation.
I prefer the wind, the human body,
a rose to fill the silence with the
poetry of movement.

I choose independence over the
collar Hollywood would place
around my neck…Cinema should
be a medium for fine-art not
the regurgitation of mediocrity.

©Susie Clevenger 2014

Maya Deren was one of the most important American experimental filmmakers and entrepreneurial promoters of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. She was critical of Hollywood's monopoly over cinema and was quite verbal about it. She chose the freedom of independent film over the moneyed machine of traditional cinema. 

Written for Real Toads Bits of Inspiration ~ Maya Deren

Comments

Sherry Blue Sky said…
Susie, this is brilliant. Especially "Art...is an open wound carved by devotion until it speaks its completion." Wowzers!
Susan said…
WOW! All leads to that knock out final stanza. I wish I wrote this poem. She's definitely a fascinating artist. Thank you Susie.
Jim said…
A lot is sacrificed for profit. Good take, Susie, on this and the whole point of her maverick productions.
I would have liked to have been with her in Greenwich Village. Those were the days.
..
I can certainly hear her saying this- brava!
Anonymous said…
I agree with Susan. Ditto on the WOW
Sreeja said…
This is wonderful!....brave....so strong.....I loved this.....
Kerry O'Connor said…
This is a wonderful tribute to a remarkable woman. Thank you for an intriguing look into the life of Maya Deren.
hedgewitch said…
Great statement, and great insight, into the ambiguous and mostly unappreciated and exploited position of women in film and in other fine art, and a backbone made of that spirit that will not give in or give up.
avalon said…
You put all the controversies of the last century in there and shook them into a powerful potion.
C.C. said…
This: "I will mix all your opinions
with the tobacco in this cigarette
and taste the smoke as I watch them burn"---this is exquisite.
Hannah said…
Absolutely well given here, Susie...so many truth points delivered eloquently.

This is my favorite portion:

"Art is not a crying infant taught
to walk in a single day...It is
an open wound carved by devotion
until it speaks its completion."

Great write, Susie!!
Hannah said…
Also...thank you for the challenge, Susie! I really enjoyed it! :)
Ben Ditty said…
Wind over profit <3 Love this, Susie.
Fabulous write! This stanza in particular

"Art is not a crying infant taught
to walk in a single day...It is
an open wound carved by devotion
until it speaks its completion. "