Poem: Inside the Atelier

A humble workshop
where creativity lives
Quiet and private
tucked in the shadows
of a Parisian alleyway
or perhaps within view
of the Bow Bells in London.
The painter does yet
another study
applying the imprimatura
and pulling out the lights
out of the darks
giving form to the formless
and shape to the shapeless
how many values
black and white
with warm grey
and dark grey
or even more than that?
A sculptor finds life in marble
chisels away the excess
and what remains is the core
of the stone's meaning.
A potter shapes curves and ridges
with their hands as the wheel
goes round and round
slower then faster
then sets them to find strength
in the fires of the kiln.
Time hardly passes here
but techniques become new
as they are employed
with the old.