WE ARE THE MUSIC MAKERS - a reminder

We are the music-makers,

And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,

And sitting by desolate streams.

World-losers and world-forsakers,

Upon whom the pale moon gleams;

Yet we are the movers and shakers,

Of the world forever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties

We build up the world's great cities,

And out of a fabulous story

We fashion an empire's glory:

One man with a dream, at pleasure,

Shall go forth and conquer a crown;

And three with a new song's measure

Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying

In the buried past of the earth,

Built Nineveh with our sighing,

And Babel itself with our mirth;

And o'erthrew them with prophesying

To the old of the new world's worth;

For each age is a dream that is dying,

Or one that is coming to birth.

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy

(from poemhunter.com, thanx for you great work)

WHERE ARE THE MUSIC MAKERS

Impressario has been and gone. Everywhere - well, here and there - sounds are made to honour that dedicated band of true artists; the actors, painters, singers of songs, all creative doers who keep our dreams alive, but not nearly e nough sounds.

It seems as if our lives have been taken over by the warriors. Those strong ones who entertain us like ball throwing gods; the players of rugby, soccer, tennis, cricket, etc.etc.etc. All of them externalising their creativity with brute force, pitching, kicking, slamming, fighting, screaming. While what a lot of us need is the healing showing, telling and thinking of internalising artists whom, through their insights, draw us to our own inner landscapes.

These artists, however, are not warriors, although a lot of them have to w(a)rry a lot about the things most of us worry about. The things real warriors do not have to worry about. They are the kind of people who were employed by kings and other patrons in the long forgotten past, as if belonging to the 'family'. And this is how it should still be done today, especially today, in a world which has become grossly materialistic.

The present Patrons of the Arts should belong to those creative guys who make the only currency they think of as worth mentioning: money. A lot of these 'moneymakers' are in tune with quality, good taste, so to say; la bella vita. To employ an artist, whether it is an artist working in visual arts, music, theatre, etc., there is need for a businessplan and a salary, a contract with deadlines, a budget and all the neccesary parafernalia which such a moneymaker normally use in his or her company. Therefore not a 'plan in the air', but a solid project with a win-win outcome.

As I am not a moneymaker, of course there will be hidden issues I don't know anything about, but someone could come up with this plan, try it out, make it work and make it public. It might be a worlwide first, even though many artists have patrons and or donors who support them, but how many of these artists are permanently employed in this way? And could it be done?

Where are these brave money makers? The creative souls who know how to create space for the 'dreamers of dreams', their own dreams and ours?