Artwork - poem

"We color inside the lines." The first Instruction at pre-school, from the dispenser Of crayons and coloring pads, is firmly Specific: art is defined by the lines; art Is the color inside them. The scribblers Who challenge the boundaries are ground down, Crayons retrieved from thrown, books taken away. A lone artist or so outgrows day-care And throws paint in newly-conceived forms Over canvas, wood, plaster, paper, re-aligns How art is done.

Now, in the Care Home, On Art Day, the aged sit at tables with crayons And coloring books. Carefully trained, those Still lucid work inside the lines; the scribblers And senile scratch everywhere. Careful praise From the Activities Director: all art is hung.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Association for Religion and Intellectual Life
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group