What I learned yesterday...

The curator, surrounded by object d'art,
Told me a story, how he had to re-learn to see.

Da Vici said,
Paint what was visible and what is invisible.

Fancy and fantasy, same Latin root.
We are all subject to the tyranny of
Form and function, unable to find the time
For seeing beauty in places easy-dismissed
As pretty but pointless.

Today, they preach against gold, delicacy,
Beauty for beauty's sake,
Want clean lines of steel and gray.
Dismiss the objects that are glorious
For the patient skill needed to create,
But have no purpose obvious.

What I learned yesterday?

The next and the next time
I visit an art museum,
Will walk the corridors
Aimlessly but purposed.

Will stop before a single creation,
Matters not the period,
Sculpture, painting, statuary, jewelry.
That would have been prior ignored,
As dated, just another...pretentious piece,
Among the twenty like it on the wall or in the case.

Before that objet I will sit,
For hours, till I have understood
Each pore, inflection of what
Inspired a man to labor over it.

If I am disciplined,
Might get ten or twelve done in a year.

But now understand, that there will be greater value,
In taking ten randomly, living with them
Body and soul, and treasuring their nuances.

When I return home,
My art to write, seeing new in a new way,
Perhaps I will set aside the urge to fast complete,
Instead, craft and care, labor over each sound, syllable,
Kiln bake, hand paint, each letter.