Tuesday, August 23, 2011


            This morning, Mom forgot that she washes the kitty dishes for John every day.  Tonight, she recited the first four lines of a Rudyard Kipling poem.  Intrigued, I looked it up on the Internet and read it to her.  I love the poem’s imagery and message.

When Earth’s Last Picture Is Painted
By Rudyard Kipling
1892

When Earth’s last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it—lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew.

And those that were good shall be happy; they shall sit in a golden chair;
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets’ hair.
They shall find real saints to draw from—Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;
They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all!

And only The Master shall praise us, and only The Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of Things as They Are!

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