Master and Slave

Like a supplicant, one must approach
as one accustomed to penance,
as one renouncing the self.

Like a god, one must approach
determined to pound and pound
out a universe of the self.

How does one learn to be
both master and slave?
This is a stance that can
only be acquired after years
of abusing others,
and years spent
abusing yourself.

And at last you learn
how to let go
yet guide
that which
seeks to
forgive
us so.

Artist's note:
Henry Miller (1891-1980) was an American author known for his attack on puritanical attitudes in literature, publishing several sexually explicit novels. His publication of Tropic of Cancer in 1934 eventually led to a series of obscenity trials which tested American pornography laws, the issue finally resolved in Miller's favor by the Supreme Court in 1964. Speaking of his own creative passions, he once said, "I demanded a realm in which I should be both master and slave at the same time; the world of art is the only such realm." Miller was also known as a watercolorist.