Earthfast

Portrait of A.S.J. Tessimond
A.S.J. Tessimond 1902–1962

Architects plant their imagination, weld their poems on rock, Clamp them to the skidding rim of the world and anchor them down to its core; Leave more than the painter's or poet's snail-bright trail on a friable leaf; Can build their chrysalis round them - stand in their sculpture's belly.

They see through stone, they cage and partition air, they cross-rig space With footholds, planks for a dance; yet their maze, their flying trapeze Is pinned to the centre. They write their euclidean music standing With a hand on a cornice of cloud, themselves set fast, earth-square.

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