PICKINGS
Poetry from NHI publications
| CLOWN |
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So, if your mask conceals a thousand griefs why is your face the saddest you can paint and why are not your eyes beyond belief? Your wear a face as fragile as gold leaf. How do you stop it flaking, with restraint so, if your mask conceals a thousand griefs? Your naked soul casts troubles in relief, your motley is the oddest of the saints' so, why are not your eyes beyond belief? Why not a saint, when constantly your chief concern transcends and tempers life's complaint so, if your mask conceals a thousand griefs? When circus-fright becomes fantasy's thief (not all of art is fortified with paint) then, why are not your eyes beyond belief? Your foolish skill taps deep and rih, as brief and full as any consecrated saint's. So, if your mask conceals a thousand griefs why, why are not your eyes beyond belief? |
| BRENT GARNER |
| from New Hope International New Series #8 Next poem Previous poem |
Pickings NHI home page Books Magazines |
A note to this poem, published in 1986, reads:
Words from this poem have been worked into a stained glass
panel by London artist Sue Cook, who created a window for the
clowns' church, Holy Trinity, Dalston. Web design by Gerald England This page last updated: 24th November 2005. |