Art In Action Poem by Keith Oldrey

Watching the middle classes at art shows
Panamas and teachers with classes
Peering intently through misty glasses
At Indian carpet knotters
Chinese embroiderers with needles so fine
Nine hours a day for 3 months- a long time
To produce a lion that only lacks a roar
The glint in his eye ready to paw.
Potters and jewellers, producers of violins
Sculpture and painting and waste in the bins
Pimms and recorders
Paras take orders
Tea on the lawns
Purchases borne proudly
Tanned happy faces talk too loudly
Pleasure and learning that’s the attraction
When visiting Oxfords 'Art in Action'

kfo 13/07.06

I find it kind of narking
That Art in Action Parking
Rings the bell
And works so well
That you only see the occasional lost soul who did not take a note of her row number.
Lost in a burnt straw field surrounded by unrecognisable vehicles parked so neatly
I enjoy the thought of a despairing body clinging to a car aerial-
Julyday Julyday Julyday, or may be Mayday.