Is it good to be original and creative without knowing it?

To putter away in a room all day and produce an artsy thing or two

That seems just a piece of regular business to you

But to others is the hallmark of a great change to everyone’s output?

Thinking in terms of cycles and traditions instead, is very medieval,

Though one day a generation may wake up

And notice some great shift had taken place all along,

As heavy domes gave way to windows supported by soaring buttresses

I think I would rather return to an Enlightenment mode,

Aware of the changes going on, helping them along with my echo,

And eventually bringing about a true rupture

In the fabric of how we live, with revolutions over kings at the end

I just want to avoid those bad combinations in certain eras,

When figures high on reincarnated romanticism

Declared they were remaking the world in verse, canvas, and song

And changed nothing in Washington or Wall Street all along

Ben Nardolilli is a theoretical MFA candidate at Long Island University. His work has appeared in Perigee Magazine, Door Is a Jar, The Delmarva Review, Red Fez, The Oklahoma Review, Quail Bell Magazine, and Slab. Follow his publishing journey at mirrorsponge.blogspot.com.