Quarry
By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 14, 2022
Quarry
Sunday morning cold and wet
First day of residency
Lanesville on Cape Ann
Sculptor Paul Manship
Epic American sculptor
You likely know
Prometheus in gold
Above the skaters
Rockefeller Center
Grand living room
Flanking pianos
Massive carved furniture
Seemingly layered
Row after row
Lived in period room
Three comfortable chairs
Facing picture window
Overlook of quarry
Canney's Pit to locals
Carved out by Finns
When Rockport was
Taken for granite
Then abandoned
Pits filled with water
Secret swimming holes
Of my youth
Skinny dipping
Scary to swim
Water with no bottom
Unlike safe
Lighthouse Beach
Dull grey day
Soft rain fell
Splattered circles
Patterns in the water
Absorbed the feeling
Where the artist sat
Feeling the spirit
Simmering seance
There is a second quarry
Butman's other side of the
Barn like studio
Today I sat again
Bright and sunny
But brisk and cold
The mantle of Manship
Cloaks me with warmth
Calms the turmoil
Takes me away
From the quotedian
Away from the famaliar
So deeply etched
Those fault lines
Eroded for now
Learning to breathe
Projects to be done
This vast quiet space
Here to learn of
Cape Ann's artists
Susan Erony's epic work
As my guide
Riveting sense that
Astrid and I are
Among the many
These past 400 years
Who came to Cape Ann
To be by the sea
Dine on its bounty
To work and create
Where huge Charles Olson
Wrote the Maximus Poems
Everythig there is to say
About Cape Ann
Epicenter of the Universe
My more humble effort
Deep in the DNA
Nugents of Rockport
Patrick and Mary
Beaver Dam Farm
Nine sons four daughters
Three died in 1913
Two sons spared
Carnage of Flanders Fields
Here I am again
As it has always been
For Pip and me
Where heart and soul
Are meant to be
Artist's retreat by the sea