Boundaries, Beliefs, and Barbed Wire Fences

Is it not the best painting when the brush is left unrestrained?
      If so a stroke must be forced, will it not then lack
            in its creative nature?

While a painting might rigidly show the true beauty of nature,
      should not the choice remain with the brush?
    Such a brush should be free to paint within or without
          any lines that may be set by any appreciating or unappreciating
              public.

In this way then, one should not be scorned for painting
      a portrait entirely guided by the standards of
          acceptance, should such a standard reside in the heart
of the painter.

So then should one's song not be measured by meter
      or rhyme, but by trueness to his or her own heart.
Should his "brush" be free and unrelenting
      or rigid, staccato, and without vibrato?

How can one - can ANY one say that a
      musician can never step past any boundary, belief,
      or barbed wire fence for the sake of his music?

Yet also how can an artist be berated for following form of
        her fellow artists, if it is what is in her heart?

So I say then that any song of true consequence to its
      performer shall retain my respect, whether or not it
          has lit pleasantly upon my ear.
                                - end -

        - February 18, 2006