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.