PORTRAITS OF THE ARTIST (C)

              I

Well, they made him a "Group Leader"
 Or, in grander modes, a "Group Manager"
The nearest he got to "Laird".

But he did the duties "well"
Some said "very well" but argued he did
Too much of the work himself.

If ever they marked him as "fitted"
For a higher grade they ensured
"Well fitted" was the required mark.

As he became sardonic
They decanted him from groups to
An asylum for hardened cynics.

             II

If you should work in wood to reconstruct your
Dismantled wardrobe, mend a gate, or make
A stool, disorder would attend your structure,
Things fall apart, breadths vanish by mistake.

If you should work with paint its varied thickness,
Shirt dabblings, sprays, propensities to chaos
Might show the Id in some repressive sickness;
A poltergeist might think you framed his naos.

Lawnmowers burn out; wires break and fuses blow:
Tyres you are blowing up deflate instead;
You cure locks worse; warped plumbings overflow;
The headboard slants and wobbles on the bed.

Words only find me an effective warder,
Framed by me into one essay at order.

             III

Unarranged, the sensations
Suck by my senses to
My "faulty sensory perception".

Within, further confusion,
The sense of humour
Disarranging.

From the core
The sense of sny
Deranged.

O wretched man that I am!
Who shall deliver me
From this body of death?

If what I need is a Deliverer
What I gain also
Is a Master.

If what I need is an Escape
What I gain
Is also a Lord.

If what I need is a Resource
What I have
Is a Head also.

 These are views on Lindisfarne, the so-called Holy Island, on the Northumberland coast.  It is specially associated with Cuthbert.