Ben Fountain

We spend a lot of time wondering about Dallas’ cultural worth – what this city makes, where it’s going, and how it is perceived. Especially since we shouldered the weight of the responsibility of those great, expensive buildings on the northern edge of downtown, we wonder how they will elevate this city or how we will rise to meet the challenge of greatness they present for us. But sometimes lost in this chatter is the recognition that a city’s culture is not made or built. Our cultural investments only capture the art that articulates the nature of the soul of a city. We rely on the art, not the art houses. And that art is made by warm-blooded human beings. Poet Robert Trammell, as Ben Fountain reminds us in Sunday’s Morning News, was one of those people who articulated ourselves for us.

"Of all the insane things to do," Bob once said. "To be a poet in Dallas."