You may visit studios
In New York or gay Paree;
Watch the famous models pose;
Study scenes of land and sea;
You may sing the cubist’s praises,
Or a portrait’s curving lip —
But for art with all its phases,
Watch a deck crew painting ship.
You will never find them stalling
When the paint begins to pour;
Artisans of every calling;
Rookies fresh from haunts ashore
Hustle overside, and swinging
On their creaking stages high,
Work to tunes the gang is singing
Till they made the red lead fly.
Hieroglyphics and odd creatures;
Birds and faces, curves and lines;
Ancient art with all its features;
Modern art in strange designs
Grace the old hull, till the laughter
Gives the bosun’s mate a tip —
And he finds, a moment after,
All hands busy — painting ship.
Dungarees and blouses spattered;
Features standing in relief,
Where the spots of paint are scattered,
Like a decked Apache chief;
Gaunt and silent, wan and bleary,
Daubed and smeared from head to feet
Come the artists, cramped and weary,
When the bugle blows retreat.
There are painters far more clever
Than these artists of the sea,
But the scrawls they make will ever
Cling around my memory;
And their laughter and their yelling,
And the steady slap and dip
Of their brushes, will be telling
How the old gang painted ship.
(Burt Franklin Jenness)
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Based on Topics: Faces Poems, Art Poems, Birds Poems, Education Poems, Work & Career Poems, Praise Poems, Memory Poems, Laughter Poems, Drawing & Painting PoemsBased on Keywords: phases, models, spattered, scrawls, daubed, artisans, hieroglyphics, blouses, overside, bosun, apache