poet & painter
PAINTER
When you have watched the fading moon
Bow in fealty to the morning star
When you are blessed to glimpse through heaven’s door
That is so rarely left ajar
When you have with the angels walked
While demons chartered your flighted steps
Thirsting for the light of grace
That god has withdrawn from the depths
When you have jigged barefoot
Along the sabres fine honed edge
Or handstands, made blindfold
Above the void, on a lonely ledge
When you can the balance gauge
Twixt a floating feather and a plummeting stone
Then pigment with a pestle crush
And from that powder conjure bone
When you can take up with your hand
A flaky piece of crumbling coal
Then sketch a visage which is so fine
It has a scent and owns a soul
When you can with the flow
Of an ink daubed pen
Bring into this world
A host of unknown men
When you can with a smudge of colour
Strike up a scene as equal to any other
When you can hold court in a great guildhall
And have men approach and call you master
Where your name is worked into the walls
For to remain there ever after
Yet ,still retain your humility keep faith
And hold a line that will not falter
Then perhaps you may pick up the brush
And step into the shoes of the painter