Room
A Watering can on the counter.
Galvanized steel. Maybe from the fifties.
Still useful. Still plain,
it’s long snout a perfect balance,
almost art.
A holdover, a survivor with no need to be bright
or temporary as plastic.
It is time.
Time to clear the counters.
Strip back down to the basics.
The few things I need, and little more.
Water. Good bread. The love of a woman.
Faith.
To be content. To create empty spaces.
Room for the next.
About this poem.
A lot going on in this poem. People around me with tragedies, that always brings us back to what is important. A cleaning of my studio underway as I prepare for my new studio, trying to simplify the mess.
The countertop in the picture reminds me of my favorite great aunt down in Surry County. She lives in what was my grandparent’s house and it has that same counter. I have always loved it.
Of my own life, which for the past decade and a half, has been an exercise in trying to simplify a life that seems hell-bent on complicating itself.
Be well. Travel wisely. Life is simpler than we make it.
Tom
Quarry House 
In Universal synchronicity, today happens to be Winnie-the-Pooh day (AA Milne’s birthday) and Pooh was my very first mentor of living a simple life. The further along my journey the simpler my own needs become. It is amazing how little I need when I am traveling in my Rav”camper” although I made sure there is room for a compact art kit. Thanks to your example, I now fully embrace art as a necessity rather than a luxury! May your new space is blessed with creative wonder my friend.
What a perfect first mentor!