New to Me: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

I just discovered T.S. Eliot’s *“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”* I know—it’s a classic—but it was all new to me. Reading it felt like walking the edge of modern anxiety, where thoughts echo down endless halls of “what ifs.” Eliot captures that uneasy space between who we are and who we want to be, between doing and dreaming.

One line won’t leave me: *“Do I dare disturb the universe?”* It’s a quiet challenge. I feel that same pull when I paint—the push between playing a role and breaking free. Art, for me, is a small act of daring, a way to move past words and into pure feeling and flow.

Maybe that’s the gift of creating—to let go, to dream a little, and, if we’re paying attention, to taste and see, for ourselves.