Among the wrack and disorder of the day: dusty floors, Half carved resemblances and journey-work, A symbolical blue heron stands With wild protesting wing and look 5 No living heron could have struck Deep in the grain; every crack, Every waver of the resinous wood Wakes a pulse in the unnatural neck. Barren out of a barren sky--- 10 A heron falters to the waters here. That artist in his studio having aged Past all bitterness to stark astonishment At life's rapacious play Hammers out, from all other unlikelihood 15 Or savage guess at parts, his fixed man Crouched in dark patterns of the wood; And because that image, once complete, Can finish up the man who bodied it Gangs of ghostly herons range against the glass, 20 Stiff against one window to witness it.
From the collection "Burning Byzantium"
Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]
More information available on gregglory.com.