Ceramics mimic fragility
In flecks and schisms —
A fake tranquility
That curators ignore;
Faintly glazed wrecked mechanisms,
Feigning crazing,
Crack and roar.
The carver slashes in ardor
Where the thick vines grow,
Smashing to uncover order
In the wood below.
The weaver’s caught a fugitive design,
Has trapped in filigree a swift dissension;
So tethered by the spindle’s merest twine,
Tapestry floats on underlying tension.
The sculptor trains his night vision
On stone deer that marble cats devour,
Asking again at daybreak their decision:
To stay displayed, subdued, another hour.
Crazing – A play on two meanings of “to craze”: 1) in ceramics, to develop a mesh of fine cracks;
and 2) to make insane.