Brantwood
This for me is the most interesting room in Ruskin's home at Brantwood on the banks of the Coniston Water.
We were given the prompt by Geraldine Green to write about several of the curiousities in the cabinets.
I like a cabinet or shelf of curiousities...I have quite a few...the family would say.
Ruskin's Library
The moths are dead and lie under a protective glass dome
no danger to the carpets now a wasps nest is empty
and the buzzing occupants have fled to a foreign field
though the hover fly hovers no more in my mind
I still hear his song of summer by the specimen chest
it's closed drawers and locked cupboards
invite illicit exploration or maybe the bookcase
dusted and locked securely against the moths
will reveal the truth truth about the Turner copy
did the grand man know the artist was he thrilled
to be chosen to reside in Ruskin's library where
the Madonna still comforts her holy crying child
now fixed in stone colour glazed Liverpool style
over the fireplace at a window seat there is space
enough to hide behind a long green velvet curtain
instructions tell me I must not touch or horror
of horrors play with the Armillary sphere or
woe betide me if I use the ornate writing tray
with its inks to pen my inktober poems better far
to find my own curled leaf out in the gardens where
freedom reigns and rain brings freedom.
A Shelf of Curiousities with the potter's ceramic clown at the front.
A Box of Vanitas....Broken Bird's Eggs found in the field
Venus of the Bay...vanitas
Have fun this week everyone. x
