‘THERE IS ALWAYS ART’

A POEM BY ANGELIKA BREWER

This poem Was Written and Read By Ogden’s Poet Laureate Angelika Brewer At the 2024 Ogden City Arts Mayor’s Awards.

There is always art.
When the tide is high,
it is but the moon
picking up her
paintbrush,
decorating each grain of sand
in blue paint and
shimmer.
When the earth rumbles,
it is simply the rocks
hugging again for the
first time
after the distance grew
too wide between them.
When the leaves fall into
bed,
it is always the orange
appearing, never the
green leaving.
There is always art.
When you believe it to
be destroyed,
It can always be found
again.
If you look closely at the
gleam in one’s eye,
the reflection of light
refusing to stay in one
place,
the bounce and
refraction of it reaching
from one person to
another
There is always
Art finds a way.
When the path grows
over,
It is but the grass trying
to take back its heart
and teach us to fly
instead.
When the storm cloud
swallows the sun whole,
It is only preparing for a
surprise.
Covered eyes.
“When you look next,
everything will have
changed.
It will all have gotten
taller.
The petals will be there.”
But in the meantime,
when all else seems to
have turned into mist,
There is always art.
There is only art.
There is.
Only art can.

— Angelika Brewer