blue skies poetry

       this morning is for sitting in a white lawn chair

carefully placed in the Spring green back yard

       for reading a book and drinking coffee

       it’s the day for watching

sun creatures behind closed eyes

chase each other to their own horizons
       but there’s a fence

a brand new brush and a bucket full of stain
the job is assessed as only an artist can

       the brush is dipped

dark liquid inhabits the spaces between the soft bristles
       brush poised over blankness

then the first pass downward

stain glistens itself into the wood

coaxes out the motif of a wooden canvas

an upward stroke completes
       the edges require a more delicate touch

bristles must not disturb the newly painted surface

none leave trickles of anticipation on the next
standing back to examine the work

there are boards and boards and boards

nobody whistling down the lane

~ Bob Stallworthy

Bob Stallworthy has 2 self-published chapbooks and 3 full-length books of poetry published by a recognized publisher. The most recent book of poetry, Optics, Frontenac House 2004, was short-listed for the 2004 W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize. In Silhouette: Profiles of Alberta Writers, a non-fiction e-book hosted on the Frontenac House website was launched in 2007. He is a Lifetime member of the Writers Guild of Alberta, a full member of the League of Canadian Poets and a member of the Young Alberta Book Society. “So Where Is Huck Finn Anyway?” is from his next manuscript, Too Small for My Skin.

Filed under: Bob Stallworthy by akublik Date 6 August, 2007