Work

for Donald Davie, sculptor in verse

1

Adam,

in the sweat of his brow,

ate bread.

Eve, in pain,

laboured

to bear fruit.

She spun, she wove…

Adam carved:

not that the stones

be made bread,

but rather

that – stone worked

and habitation

hewn from it –

bread be eaten,

fruit borne.

2

At the point of the chisel

what was

a block of stone

a corbel, a capital

becomes

pierced with darkness

a leafy glade

                     of the forest

brought indoors

And beneath it, cut

from the general view

for God

for the swineherd your brother –

– where an acorn-cup, empty

tells of the forest floor –

two pigs

              two snouts rather

rooting among leaves

3

A mullion –

cleft and branching, then

in the marble

cut leafage, un-

furling

            clear of it

Such needless beauty

the Protestant work ethic

has no time for

Though it was hand

and labour first

bowed the mason

to the task

Which issues in this praise

of the maker of leaves and stone