! A Question About Art

Our world forgets – has never known, perhaps – that questions are a treasured magic wand: the question asked, the answer may, most like, come freshly said out of a space that’s new alike to teacher and to taught; your question is today – how factual should I leave my verse, or should I seek to ‘colour’ it with metaphor? … this image comes to mind: ‘old master’ in his studio, famed painter of Madonnas with attendant Child; demand’s incessant; so he draws the outlines in, and passes on the canvas to his studio hand; coloured then, maybe he adds the master’s touch of life -– the smile of angel’s sweetness on the Madonna’s face; the glimpse of future in the Christ Child’s eyes; and off it goes to some great patron’s church, to comfort all of womanhood in woes and joys, its colours gleaming candlelit in sacred prayer; and yet, how connoisseurs may treasure that quick sketch on scrap of hand-made paper, where the very touch of sanguine chalk or silverpoint, reveal the immediate mind of that old master, as it found the new track of the line; the world will praise, admire, your coloured image of Her face; but She will see, in pencilled sketch, how love springs from her grace..