Light Through the Window

There are tools on the workbench,
not as many as a visitor might expect, but then,
you are old enough to know what you use
and what you do not.

It is the advantage of age, to know yourself
far better, to understand that this works
and this does not, and how much you enjoy
the slow work of old tools,

The making of less, better.
to create, even yourself,
with simplicity and sweat, where time
is as important an ingredient
as the wood and iron that fills your workshop,

About this poem

I have a tendency to not know when to end a poem in my first draft. This one went on and on and on, when, after looking at it again, I realized the end came after just three stanzas. Everything else was just cleverly worded fluff. Thank God for editing.

The photograph was taken at the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts. It is one of my favorite pictures.

Tom