The Poet’s Chair
It is a simple stool. Late Medieval. Early Rennaisance.
The leather, well preserved
non the less shows its age.
It looks strong still, despite the years
and the stories behind it,
a stool you could drag close to the fire
and warm your winter body
with a goblet of red wine,
staring into the flames,
all mysterious and romantic.
It would be easy to think, “Here is a man at peace.”
when in truth it is the chair of grizzled veterans
and blind poets, whether their scars show
or not.
About this poem
Yes, all you purists out there, the picture is of a 19th Century stool. But it is as close as I had in my archive of photographs. This one was taken at the Isabella Stuart Gardener museum in Boston. And it DOES have the look, doesn’t it?
So many people mistake quiet for peaceful, collected, calm. I find that is rarely the case when you look beneath the surface.
Tom
Quarry House 