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ISIS doesn’t like the arts

The terrorists brought down marvels
in ancient statues and friezes, having
murdered the curator defending these

and having no gun. They fired with guns
into a Paris concert venue, while the music
played and fans were sinuously in

tune, young ones with blissful
countenance and their own song. For this
was Friday night, and love for music

elevates. “They don’t like music,” Bono
claims, and he is right—art and
beauty have no place

in the terrorist agenda. So
dangerous must be the muse’s power
to prod a people into thinking and loving

with all art’s inspiration. So
much is beauty feared in the
mad-monger’s eye that it must be

demolished. And so we must see straight
and straighter. Protect our people, fight
back, and preserve our beloved and unique

intuitions and expressions. We must
remember, too, this is not a war on
Islam, whose tenets teach welcoming

and prayer. But what we make—which
is the poem’s meaning, that is, to
make—is taken now as part of who

we are. Life is better. Yet art moves
the heart, wakes up the mind: opening
our better selves. This terrorizes terror.