ManicDDaily

Order (Of Sorts) Instilled in Difficult Play Date

Terra Cotta
was not exactly
terra firma.
Not like play-doh
which could make my say-so
fly–
for I was a pro
at play-doh
and the ability
to form beings
out of clay–elephants, turtles,
little blue guys–
grants, in childrens’ eyes
a God-like guise.

But terra cotta
was what we had to hand,
an old birthday gift
of stiff mud (tan),
and would have to do.

Messy, still, absorption
ensued,
as we molded, between our palms,
calm–
it came
in little wet lumps
with eyes, ears,
rocket ship cones,
taking us for whole
half-hours completely out
of this world.
**************************

Here’s a rather silly little poem for Fireblossom Friday, on With Real Toads, to write something prompted by the work of Guido Vedovato, a naive painter and sculptor, whose works may be found here. In my case, the inspiration was his very sweet sculptures that look as if molded from clay. I used to take immense pleasure making play doh objects and, yes, even terra cotta–though it is a much much harder medium–with my children and their friends when they were small.

Note that although Vedovato’s sculptures (particularly of horses) were the inspiration for this poem, the above picture is of a little terra cotta elephant made by me. His images may be found at the website, where they are protected by copyright. (Mine are too, by the way! Ha!)