Busman’s Holiday

Busman’s Holiday
(for the artists of the Pacific Northwest Art Center)

When artists get together to travel
every day is a busman’s holiday
replete with materials and tools of the trade.
Everything they touch taste smell see hear
is a subject they must cover with paint and pen,
vibrant with color and texture,
complex with metaphorical expression,
drenched in light.

The eagle must be photographed, collaged,
praised in words that lift the language
above the common waters of casual conversation,
striving to attain the heights of feathered flight.

The feltmaker, the poet, the painter,
determined to re-create the great state of Washington,
mix it up with watercolors, words and dyes.
They want something it takes two hands to hold
to take back to their friends; a pirate’s booty
in rubies of fresh-picked raspberries,
jewels of polished cherries glinting in a noonday sun.

Always, always they must give some away.
This is their tithe, their ten per cent of Whidbey bounty.
Taste the tart sweet of her fresh fruits.
See the damp, gray fog sifting green through Douglas firs.
Smell the salt clam chowder of the Sound.
Hear the lonely chime of a swaying buoy.
Feel this rock, so smooth and so round.
They won’t go home empty-handed, no!

Artists do their best work when they play.
For us, LIFE is a busman’s holiday.

—Mendy Knott