PORTRAITS OF THE ARTIST (A)

This is the first of seven sections of a sort of autobiography which I wrote in 1994.  It is not specifically Christian.  It includes older sections, such as AI, which existed as 'poems' in their own right.  The better poet of AIII is George Mackay Brown: Scottish Poetry Library

PORTRAITS OF THE ARTIST
              
              I

Meaning was not enough,
Aptness with words even
Was unsatisfying:
A hunger of the mind.

Sometimes a distant form
Will almost coalesce
But defies the eye's focus;
The object undefined.

The artist forges line,
Colour, texture and form
Into a unity:
More than he had defined.

So he became a poet:
The timbre of the words
And texture of their sounds
Cast him this other kind.


              II

Words and images
I have cajoled into
My own order.

Into my mind and others' minds
I have guddled, hoping
Some plump, fresh grilse might surface.

I have ridged page upon page
That seed of my sowing
Might bear some fertile ears.

Through others fields and wastes
I have tramped, plucking
Berries, seeds and feathers.

Tentatively I have raided
Unaccustomed lands
Trying to make something mine.

And I have essayed to deploy
Old images and rhymes
Into new hymns and anthems.

If any words have lived
Or any symbols danced
I have become a poet.

             III

If I am poet, not mere versifier,
That honed style has been the marque
Of the real poems; while the concetto used
Is the best I can distil into the poetic
Myth-cauldron.  Since both are derived
From a better poet I make no claim
To originality.  But I attempt to build
On others' foundations: the minor poet's task.
Consider my idyll; a laird or chieftain
Rules benignly; peasant and shepherd
(Or fisher) fold grain and flesh;
A tramp scuffs past; a fighter or seaman
Relives old struggles; and each in his way
Poet and priest bear succour and praise.
Against these archetypes I have tasked others
Now try myself: will the metal weigh true?