Lawrence Hall
Dispatches
for the Colonial Office
“LA Fires Bring
Art to a Halt”
Hyperallergic: Sensitive to Art and
Its Discontents
No.
A fire brings nothing to a halt
To the last respiration of the very last soul
And beyond: Art will live because Art lives -
A poet abandoning her car to flee for her life
Holds to her heart her notebooks in grocery-store bag
To the last respiration of the very last soul
And beyond: Art will live because Art lives
A trumpeter manages to save the mouthpiece at least
While carrying his child out to an ambulance
To the last respiration of the very last soul
And beyond: Art will live because Art lives
A sculptor’s eyes record a wall of windows
To be re-molded as life-filled windows of dreams
To the last respiration of the very last soul
And beyond: Art will live because Art lives
Firefighters wrestling a hose through smoke and heat
Are a choreograph of life against flaming death
To the last respiration of the very last soul
And beyond: Art will live because Art lives
An artist whose studio is now but smoke
Will stir ashes and water, and paint again
To the last respiration of the very last soul
And beyond: Art will live because Art lives
A little girl will write of her little dog
Her bestest pal whom she never saw again
To the last respiration of the very last soul
And beyond: Art will live because Art lives
In a shelter tonight an aging man
Will sing to himself the love songs of his youth
To the last respiration of the very last soul
And beyond: Art will live because Art lives
then patch
a
few words together and don’t try
to
make them elaborate, this isn’t
a
contest but the doorway
-Mary Oliver, “Praying”
