My red chalk poised to make its mark,
I pause. Steady this shaking hand.
Full well I know the master’s wish
to entrust an image of himself.
Perhaps his vanity is earned.
This student heart desires to show
there’s depth to read, between the lines
I seek to trace from face to page.
“Why does the mind see such design
more clear in dreams than when awake?”
‘Own the skill’, da Vinci urges,
‘every clean sheet needs a drawing’.
A nose in profile becomes stiff
as movement is the source of life,
shadow the means to disclose form.
Once graceful ringlets now hang lank,
the curl and weight of strands unsprung.
That beard is newly fashionable,
then and now. Under its veneer,
his yearning features are undimmed.
Melzi may fix those rheumy eyes
but cannot match the restless thoughts
behind, from which I’ve learned so much.
Framed by gift of my memento,
they shape the world’s perspective still.
ix. 2019 – iv. and x. 2020
Following a visit to his final home (Clos Luce in Amboise) the previous year, I had been keen to see Leonardo's drawings, exhibited to mark 500 years since his death. They did not disappoint; arguably, he is the greatest polymath the world has known - well worth getting to know better.
ReplyDeleteThis humble and rather mechanical tribute came from a workshop prompt. We set ourselves the task of writing something 'in response to ...' and this image of him, drawn by his final and favourite student, Melzi, was fresh in my mind.
My first draft was written in third person, but the group felt the poem would engage a reader more directly through being recast in Melzi's own voice. They were right.
Melzi's 'quotation' is a slight contraction of da Vinci's own words, whereas the lines ascribed to Leonardo are my own invention.