in the workshop

Poem #148 from a series of poems drawn from the imagination and collected as: a Bachelard reverie.

Back to Bachelard and me – Introduction

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he was a man
who dreamed
within the tooled space
of his workshop

there
among saw and plane
chisels and mallets
sandpaper
and dust
he would find himself
in reverie

his hand
hairy-backed
thing of strength
had only to run
idly
along the length
of a piece
of aged blackwood
or salvaged walnut

ash
or fiddle-backed redgum

and he would dream
the ways to shape it

the things he might craft
while minimizing
any waste
of precious material

so hard to come by
now

his dreams were rich
filled with the deep wood colours
and the smells
of stain
and of polish

at home
his personal cabinetry
was thin stuff
chipboard and veneer

laminate plastic
on top of artificial wood

his bed
was mattress
on base

plastic wheels

no wood

at night
when sleep came
he dreamed restlessly
in a toss and turn of near agitation

becoming more tired
as the night progressed

relief would come
with the light of morning
and the prospect
of another day
of wood
and of dreams
in the workshop

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© Frank Prem 2018

Bachelard and me Poem #149: to judge

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