Is the art of Broadway or a movie measured by box office or by other standards?

Art and the Box Office
by Michael Romani

It may seem a bit of artifice
To say that art isn't measured by the box office
Still an artist should not be intimidated
By having his best work underestimated

Kept at, life will balance out
Of this, we should not have a doubt
There are vagaries on boffo showmanship
That will always tarnish the establishment

But, it would be less the wise
To give away one's soul in compromise
Perfect jewels are often the persuasion
That give rise to a sense of occasion 

It gets us past the corruption of our youth
When we move past idealism and into truth
Despite all of our worse delusions
And we meet the ground below our illusions

After the crunching disappointment of cynicism
The best of us find a way to marry hope with pessimism
And despite our battles with stolid reality
We still hold out for the best of sentimentality

Resisting the urge for an on running contribution
Some of us even revive our hold on optimism
Believing that failure doesn't need to destroy art
We lick our wounds and keep faith in our hearts

Driven by our gifts given by our creator
We act our parts a ditizens of the theater
Driven by legacy stretched from the ordinary
Into finding satisfaction in the extraordinary

There is something stimulating in life's uncertainty
Penciled in and then erased with feigned urgency
It's something there in this stab at finality
That will finally arrive with us in our legacy

(c)  August 4, 2019  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved