Guest Poet: Metal Artist Musings by Elaine Schenkel

I want to feel the urge
of the artist of steel
with sprockets
and wheels and spikes
in the soul and the night moon
of his accomplishments

I want to know the weight of his solidity
how he fastens the elbow of one iron branch
to another, how the rods and bolts twist,
turn, tighten

I want to know
the burn of the torch,
the melting of joints
the shape of a copper circle,
scolded by fire, then sealed

I want to stand brass in the night
anchored to a wooded base
the reflection of my metal
beams a shining you’re
not meant to catch

I want to hook off
of a wire, hang by a chain
become the links
surrounding the space
of what appears
to connect us

January 2014

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Poem and Image by Guest Poet, Elaine Schenkel.