To Make Stone Sing Poem by Bill Mitton

In fashioning Stone to give a song in every turning,
by giving flow to glass that is not molten,
placing a dancing step within a twist of steel,
bringing life and warmth to wood long dead,
seeing the story in a shape, where none intended
this, surely is the alchemy in your Art

By your hand and inner eye is the common
made to become uncommon, cherished, special.
Breathing sympathy into that which, by natures way,
is wrought from clay and holds no life nor feelings.
To balance shapes upon a pin within your mind
and be not breathless at the audacity in the thought.

To know the shape of time and space
To give bright image to a feeling.
To hold within your palm a sunset's touch,
and awaken within a dormant heart
the fires of something long forgotten.
To be a signpost to life's light and beauty.

To comprehend the colours of emotion
and mirror them in paint and weft.
So that on their reading, each heart
and eye, is given choice of understanding.
To bring forth from base elements
The golden touchstone of the future.

To give yourself into the singing stone
So that hand and heart and mind
are laid bare, for all to witness.
To have the courage and the charity
to open your palms and show the workings
of your soul.
Should we not cherish such alchemy as this?


TO JOE on your graduation
“In admiration of your own unique alchemy, ”