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Dutch Painting
God knows-it's not a milk-blue washt morning I see:
delft, cobalt.
Firelight mails you: in links and mesh.
We get down to the meaning of brass things:
-Are we on love's ladder, the
first rung?
Are we singing the song of
what will be sung?
Things with a gleam, things with a ring.
This ushers us into a Dutch evening.
It is not to be found everywhere-
cheerful seriousness:
The fire in your cheek
like that of the old masters, keeps keen.
The light upon the
shoulders
and chest is dense, sculptural: bronze-green.
The motions are those (arrested) of bearing pitchers.
There is a glaze
moving over objects-as if the sea
washed the scene with a passion:
And then, the sea froze.