This is what we artists and open
mic
worshipers have hoped for
all this time with our journals
and rants and sketches, to see
someone so Republican at the altar
of
art. One sees the scratchings,
like our own attempts at the cave
wall.
Hands stained red. The trick
of dimension is like a whole extra
grade
level. The trick of expression--
however easy to start--
so much harder to get exactly right.
I want to take him to workshop,
talk to him about getting the bones
of it down first. What could this
man know of bone
and muscle and ligament
having ignored so much gore in his
path:
the scraped and scalloped wartime
bodies,
the skulls looking like so many
bladders
emptied of their gray and red and
black,
the rubble made out of parlors and
kitchens? If that introspection
can come from making art,
if that is one of life's most
elusive gifts, if that
is the divine in the human coming
out,
I have to say, George: finally.
Louise Robertson has earned degrees (BA Oberlin, MFA George Mason University), poetry publications (Pudding Magazine, New Verse News, Parting Gifts) and poetry awards (Mary Roberts Rinehart, Columbus Arts Festival Poetry Competition -- twice). She is active as a poet and organizer in her local Columbus, Ohio poetry.