Poetic Thank-You for the Coppervale Studio Tour

When I signed up for the ANWA summer retreat, I knew I was in for several days of pure writing bliss. What I didn't know was that the weekend would start with a bonus. James Owen, author of Drawing Out the Dragons and SO much more, offered our group a personal, guided tour of his studio. I returned to the cabin and wrote this tribute and offer it as a thank-you to James for sharing a view of the space he's artfully created to create art!

A Poet’s Visit to Coppervale

Only the eyes of an artist can see

That forsaken paint-chipped walls haven’t outlived their usefulness,

Aren’t barriers but building blocks

To create a space, a world, to provide a life

It takes the eyes of an artist to see

Forty or fifty or 100-year-old floors can be used for more 

Than Sunbeam classes or sermons,

How aging floors can support dreams

Walking, waking dreams of dragons

And superheroes and signals

Only the heart of an artist and

The touch of an artist’s hand

Can rescue delicate, resilient roses and

Replant them and let them grow

Like dreams, in their fertile home soil

Tamara Passey

6/26/2013

Rescued Heritage Roses

Heritage Roses

Heritage roses, came across the plains with the pioneers, rescued and replanted