Saturday 2 April 2022

Jan Baeke: 'Tempus Omnia Revelat'


 

TEMPUS OMNIA REVELAT

 

How a man looks need not draw attention.

He stands out of the light or dissolves in the crowd the street

can equally well draw attention.

 

That’s not the issue here. We are ready

for eternity, that is the soul

he captures on a fine canvas, well-framed

although his reputation seems like shifty cattle.

 

He works from the true, says

that there stirs in the gaze the fine details, that which

you cannot see, almost the light the hand of God. 

 

That much we know. Faults in the weave, small shifts of colour.

Never a church or board that had a problem

with a natural defect.

So do we work to that same law.

 

A gentle smile, firm features

must shore up our successors, be a light

above the heavy table where they easily fall ill

and exchange figures for gout and Holland gin.

 

Knowledge of worth is our salvation.

Our duty to remain a warning and a lesson.

Tell that to the painter!

 

 

 

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