Art Gallery Poem Ii Poem by Peter Elliott

Take a picture,
Hanging to a wall
In a restful symmetric frame.

Place carefully,
So as not to over-balance
Very gently
One, Or two, Human Beings,

It is their first time at this exhibition

They gape
Like butterfilies leaving their cocoon
Like playing first time a CD tune

With eyes focused
On the painting they stand,
Gazing rigidly, intently.

Or staring faraway through infinity.

They are trying to understand the painting.
Trying to clarify and classify
A foreign experience
Into their store
Of known experience.

Like a zen novice in the hands of a zen master
Doubts arising in a pastor

They will never understand
Paintings.

And nor do I!

(Sept 1970, Cape Town, South Africa)