Finding the Right Tool

The workshop is never quite clean.
It is messy work, building, repairing
and every project requires its own tools,
specialized, individual.

There is a lot of trial and error in it.
Tools you thought would fit
often end up being not quite right
for the job.

So you choose another.
Or create a new one,
hoping to find the right one
before you do more damage

than you started with.
It is a frustration and a joy
trying one, then the other,
knowing so much about restoration

but always having to learn something new.

About this poem.

I recently picked up a cabinet for paraments that came out of an old Catholic Church. I plan to use it to store paintings in my studio. It needs a lot of work to stabilize and use, and despite a lifetime of restoring furniture, I am learning a few new things as I do the work. That was the inspiration for the poem.

But restoration, transformation, and growth have long been themes of mine. I consider my own life a restoration in progress, and for all I know, I am always learning as I live and do my work.

Poetry is never about one thing.

Be well. Travel wisely,

Tom