Across the Warp

Whatever comes, face into that. We can't know
what the tapestry will look like, finished.
This rough underside, this is where we work

against the threads' resistance, the tangled
colors. No machine equipped to take over
and complete the piece, only intense labor

persistent as the wish that we'll be allowed
to see it through (though something asks
why we should be so favored.) Few works

make it to the exhibition. Still, if we examine
the texture, the warp and woof of what happens,
we could find patience in the small stitches,

recall the time required to make one square-yard
of tapestries in Florence, the great walls
in the Galleria dell' Accademia:

Adam naming the animals, Eve offering the apple,
the tender details, how the bodies fit into space
and flow. And the curve where Adams' rib

was drawn out, no black outline, but rather
the suggestion of power entering and leaving,
a bright and formless opening.

~ Jeanne Lohmann