POETRY ASSIGNMENT: WHAT A WORK OF ART SAYS TO YOU

THE OSAKA VASE

The lamplight glides off the sloping sides

Of the blue-gray stoneware Osaka vase.

My daughter, the potter, had asked advice

From her teacher with the long black hair

And gentle hands on how to inscribe

In vertical kanji a plea for peace

Inspired by her Hiroshima pilgrimage.

This old vase of some thirty years

Has suffered breakage and repairs.

Equally old are the skeletal stalks

Of the dried flowers and reeds it holds

Which we found in the Victorian home

A block or two from our children’s school.

It sends a mute and ancient message

Still falling on deaf human ears.