Ut Pictura, Poesis? Poem by Doug Stewart

He paused, set down his brush, closed the tube
Of pain and smiled. “Ut pictura, poesis, my friend,
As with painting, so with poetry.”

And I have wondered ever since, whether poets and artists
Follow art or is it art that follows poets’ pens, painters’,
Brushes, sculptures’ chisels, a hungry wolf that is never sated.

I guess I come down on the side of devouring art, although
If you say it is we practitioners I would not argue. From whence
Do these things come? We apply them from tips of our pens, paint

Brushes. Michelangelo said the statue was already in the stone,
The sculptor merely releases it. Can the same be said of paper or
Canvas? Do we carve away words that do not fit the page?

I think so, although it is hard to imagine words hidden in
The page, awaiting discovery. Still as metaphor, it stands,
Words and paint are windows to the very soul of us.