Marble I by Marguerite Costigan
The appreciation of art is also an appreciation of the artist and their artistry. Here’s one by Marguerite Costigan, creating art and celebrating it too.
Sculpture By Laura Moll, Photo Courtesy Brian Landis
Marble I
by Marguerite Costigan
For Crissa
This stone holds History
in its worked and human hands,
coaxed from the vast Amorphous
by intent, by generations
of Makers, Sharers, Givers
with iron and wooden tools, echoing
the free or cloistered men and women
who salvaged them
from the fires, the running waters,
the palaces, streets, and dusty marketplaces
long pressed into dust.
Artisans gently, firmly, with taught
and intuited patience,
these men stroke by stroke reveal
their gods, their heroes,
their worshiped icons
from the stone that glows
with captured inner light.
Following the crevices, the foliate impurities,
the traces of lost rivers across
these yet-unpolished surfaces;
laying out the tools in rows waiting
for hands to touch, to press, to heft them
into use – hands that are evanescent flesh
chipping away the timeless, the non-evanescent
with delicate strength, with courage,
determination
defying these tongueless surfaces,
caressing this stubborn paleness
as they would a Lover –
stroking, polishing formlessness
into flesh from stone.
Toast was a weekly email newsletter that ran from July 2018 to March 2019. All of the pieces from Toast’s run and more can be read in Solo Novo 5/6.
- Glenna Luschei, Abiding Publisher and Editor Emeritus
- Benjamin Daniel Lawless, Editor in Chief
- Tom Harrington, Contributing Editor
- Rena Ferro, Managing Editor
- Brian Landis, Photographer and Advisor