A personal beef.

[Soul_of_Shu]

I'm stretching to find right language. I intellectually comprehend that the above image is a sensual representation and I grok what it's about. However, it does not generate a sensual feeling or recognition within me. What would be the poet's term for that feeling? A feeling like the one stimulated by Guernica.

Well, interpretation of art is always going to be highly subjective, and contingent upon cultural influences, as well as subliminal karmic influences. What may feel sensual to some, may be of no appeal to others whatsoever. Guernica is reminiscent of some nightmares I used to have, though not so much these days, and certainly speaks to the unbearably agonizing collective grief from time immemorial—might it even be the grief of God?—that I still tap into in the dreamtime. Yet still, even in the midst of that profound grief, I've known the bliss of Being, and can embrace it as one would a sensuous lover, albeit perhaps one that is into BDSM ... Vive la difference

[Lou Gold]

I'm stretching to find right language. I intellectually comprehend that the above image is a sensual representation and I grok what it's about. However, it does not generate a sensual feeling or recognition within me. What would be the poet's term for that feeling? A feeling like the one stimulated by Guernica.

Well, interpretation of art is always going to be highly subjective, and contingent upon cultural influences, as well as subliminal karmic influences. What may feel sensual to some, may be of no appeal to others whatsoever. Guernica is reminiscent of some nightmares I used to have, though not so much these days, and certainly speaks to the unbearably agonizing collective grief from time immemorial—might it even be the grief of God?—that I still tap into in the dreamtime. Yet still, even in the midst of that profound grief, I've known the bliss of Being, and can embrace it as one would a sensuous lover, albeit perhaps one that is into BDSM ... Vive la difference

I'm not surprised or shocked that you have experienced profound joy along with the deepest grief. This is what Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of in his great poem:

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Haven't you illustrated what I've been speaking of, that visual images and poetry are able to evoke profound feelings and that it feels strange to me to assign them to a separate category called, "Metaphysically Relevant Art-Forms." And so, once again, to the words of Ibn' Arabi:

Dearly beloved!
Let us go toward Union.
And if we find the road
That leads to separation,
We will destroy separation.

Yeah, I know, it's a personal beef. Thanks for the discussion. I like what it provoked. And I like the way you moderate this forum.

[Lou Gold]

Well, interpretation of art is always going to be highly subjective

But, isn't this the point? The world is not an object. It is a subjective experience. This is the theme of Pinchbeck's rave essay about idealism and BK.

Idealism, not being compelling in itself, therefore drives us into the individual responsibilities of a more participatory world.