The Artist’s Reality (Archie Knox)

So rapt in contemplation is the soul

Of the true artist he feels not the shock

Of hostile elements.  The winds may blow

Tempestuously, the thunder crack and roll,

The rains descend, the tortured earth may rock;

These are not the reality he would know.

The artist like the mystic, finds a whole

World and complete within.  They but unlock

The gates, these outbursts of external show,

But over what’s within have small control.

One whose rare art should make all Manxmen proud

When urged to shelter from the heavy rain

Which drenched him did the urgency disdain,

Turned to his friend; said “Hush ! Look at that cloud.”

 

Weekly Times   5.2.60