I am making a window on the world,
A stained-glass window through which to look at things.
It is very much my own creation,
With reds so buoyant that they make your heart beat faster
And greens so cool that they make you taste peppermint.
The blues have the absolute assurance of first love;
The yellows, the insistence of a scarcely understood creed.
And I have purples rich with double meanings,
And oranges as straightforward as a dog.
Working in stained glass is a multi-faceted discipline:
Besides skills in design and the use of colour
You need to be able to cut glass accurately
And to solder lead so that it will hold your glass for centuries.
My window is a bold union of High Gothic and Art Nouveau,
Blending reverent formality with great swooshes of elan.
Imagine, if you will, the Virgin Mary
As she might have been depicted by Alphonse Mucha.
I would highly recommend stained glass as a medium.
It requires considerable craftsmanship
And painstaking attention to detail,
But you can always re-use the pieces
When your entire view of things
Has been shattered yet one more time.
By Jonathan Steffen
First Published in The Colour of Love, Acumen Publications, 2011
