How to make great art

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How to make great art

1. Cram your eyes and ears until

your heart is also full.

Drown in down-feathered perfection.

Let love simmer until

it thickens into jealousy (a dense, heavy consistency).

Stew and steam.

(caution: smoke may come out of your ears.

just hide out in the bathroom ’til it clears.)

2. Become a mockingbird, a mynah, and a magpie.

Spot the shiny stuff and steal it,

see what Simon says, starling, and sing it back.

Make your nest a mimeograph of purloined parts.

Cobble and copy, nick and knit.

3. Listen to a secret.

They are parrots and bowerbirds all.

They copy copies of copies

until the song they sibilate is green to their ears.

While you sauté and slice and chop and screw

you are brewing something new.

Fledgling, you thieve but

it is a gift.