The World According Poetry #18
How to Paint a Masterpiece
By Stephanie Wood Miller © 2019
Blank
Without contour or line
The canvas waits
Taunts the artist
With the promise of its recondite mystery
Approach with courage
Or with caution
Gentle
Or fierce
Agonizing
Or effortless
Brush poised, pointing
Caressing
Stabbing
At once magical and ordinary
The secret subject may emerge
Or evade
Is a masterpiece executed?
Captured?
Released?
Did it live inside the canvas?
Did it flow from the brush tip?
Was it scrapped from the pallet?
Or laboriously delivered
Bloody and screaming?
It dries, matures
And outlives the artist
The passage of time the only measure of its truth