Budding Artists In A Tempera Grove Play School Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

a gold leaf sun in the corner of the picture
lets you know it is a sunny day
in the tempera landscapes painted with

Big Brushes: Christmas laden with the blue,
the red, the green
in a kindergarten scene out of Giotto.

oh swirling, swirled in the mysterious waters that cannot dissolve
the gleam of something glowing in all the colours sparkling

the geraniums on the window sill the orange fish
in the aquarium and swimming through the air
even though you cannot name them yet,

more vivid reds and greens and unexpected blues
chagall wrote in the clouds before you were born
pink sands of the sandbox, castled, won

and the lily bouquets violet, dream shaded
now, for you

and all the rose fragrances, child

mary angela douglas 30 may 2014

Note on the Poem: I remember the feeling when I was five years old at nursey school of being allowed to paint at large easels with big brushes in red, blue, and yellow, and mixtures of blue and yellow to make green. I remember a room flooded with light and a feeling of spaciousness inside and out. I lost this feeling in a junior high art class. But now I can remember and access both feelings. Especially I remember a feeling of joy, a mysterious feeling of joy...