I tossed so many pages and reworded things to fit the book — but is it art?

Art has a changing form — an adaptability that moves with each generation, much like the way words evolve over time. Some art is born of pure genius; other works are elevated by the shoulders of pretentious onlookers, forcing a piece of garbage to the front of society and deeming it worthy — and money is no deterrent.

I’d like to focus on what I believe true art is.

I firmly believe all humans are capable of art — music, writing, creating, maneuvering through life in such a way that others simply stop, pause, and stare. Would that not be considered art?

Does rhyming words make you a poet? No more than painting chalk-covered driveways makes you Michelangelo.
But still — it is art.

There are authors whose early writings I’ve loved, and I can pinpoint the moment they received enough of a lucrative sum to stop creating to their original standard.

I look at my own work and think — this is my art.
Whether anyone agrees or not, if I sell one copy, I have succeeded in the pursuit of my goal. I have created something new out of what was to rest — something that may have never existed otherwise.

A professor teaching their craft, spending hours preparing for a ten-second spark of understanding from a student — that is art.
A martial arts instructor, rehearsing a single technique with the air for hours before class so their students can execute it perfectly — that too is art.

This thought has stayed with me: doing something you truly love does not have to be loved by anyone else to be beautiful.

Creating is the beauty.
The reward is the journey.

I changed three poems in my book at the last minute, thinking to myself — the structure, the pieces to this puzzle, fit better, sound better now.

I consider this book the closing of a chapter — a way to lay a piece of my life to rest, with no intention of ever picking it up by myself again.

With that perspective, I think to myself: I spent hours, weeks, months, creating what some may spend only a moment glancing over — or perhaps reading all the way through.

But the idea of creating something that another person finds beautiful makes the creation of this book beautiful.

Simply… art.