I was happy that three poems were published in Cultural Weekly. This is a great literary journal out of LA — vibrant and energetic. I like it because there are a range of poems and also, I respect the work of Chiwan Choi, a fellow Korean American writer. He has a good sense of humor and is fiercely dedicated to creative expression. People who spend their lives writing, editing, artmaking, and fostering communities and ideas that allow people to express who we are–these are uncommon individuals.

COVID has demonstrated to us all that we need to live differently. To those who are outside of the creative fields it may behoove you to take a look at how another segment of the population lives and breathes. Why? Because as Oscar Wilde stated, artists are the future. So we can take a cue from those who are enthralled with asking the questions about what makes us human, why we are, how we are, and know that to live your life in a way that challenges and wrestles with these ideas of beauty and pathos is entirely possible. Those who do so have chosen the path that in the end, defines our civilization. That’s it: art DEFINES us. This is the raw and raging truth of art, that it is created in defiance and will. It shows us beauty and to do this, rebels against every system that exists in our life.

This is art at its best.

And know this too–yes, those who do this, the artists and writers, have the answers (or at least know what some good questions are) when it comes to thinking of new ways to live and be in this COVID and later, post-COVID world.

Creativity–art is what defines who we are as a people. We are all capable of creativity and expression–telling and living stories and colors that are imagined. To be and to do this is the great feat of our time and the great task of any life: to live in defiance of convention, to declare our being, to upend what IS to honor beauty and compassion. This is life. Truth. Mimesis. Art.