Drink life past the final lees
Play on fingers until they bleed
Dine upon the empty bone
Plant the earth unto the stone
Catch an ending in the Grail
Drink the well until its scale
Fill fill fill over let it splash
Keep me moist, keep me from the ash
Make love through stars and moon
Stay with me until afternoon
Press the grapes into my wine
Quench your thirst on vacant vine
Break the cup upon the floor
Seek clarity through an open door
Turn down an empty glass
Drink from it the very last
life is good
tamam shud.

∞

Submitted as part of “National Poetry Writing Month – 2017” (#NaPoWriMo2017). Today’s prompt: write a poem of ekphrasis — that is, a poem inspired by a work of art. But I’d also like to challenge you to base your poem on a very particular kind of art – the marginalia of medieval manuscripts. In this case, I’ve chosen an 1870’s edition illuminated by the incomparable William Morris with illustrations by Edward Burne-Jones. Morris (one of the great influences in my life) and his Kelmscott Press took the concepts of marginalia and illumination to a whole other level … wresting the “book” back from the clutches of mass production and returning it to its place as an expression of art itself.