Poem: "Let the Glass Make Itself"
Apr. 27th, 2026 12:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is spillover from the February 3, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Laura G. It also fills the "Taking It Slow" square in my 2-1-26 card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "The Bones of Chihuly" but is listed after "To Repair the Damage of the Lumberman."
"Let the Glass Make Itself"
[Tuesday, July 5, 2016]
Dale Chihuly was taking it slow
in the aftermath of the Big One.
He had to; the West Coast
no longer had the infrastructure
to do anything as quickly as before.
Someone had been sending out
portable metal forges and glass forges,
so Dale claimed some for himself.
He needed them for going through
the ruins of Chihuly Garden and Glass.
Like most of Rain City, the museum
had been reduced to colorful rubble.
Dale and some of his students
went through the wreckage
to salvage whatever they could.
Volunteers helped too, including
a team of teleporters who could
transport large containers.
Just clearing away some
of the mess made it easier
to work with what remained.
Now and then, a piece of glass
was returned whole, unbroken.
Dale was saving those to build
a miracle monument later on,
whenever he collected enough.
Mostly people brought shards to
him to create something new.
"How do you know what
to make?" asked Lizardbus.
"What I learnt a long time ago,
is to let the glass make itself,"
said Dale. "Use the fire and the heat,
the centrifugal force and gravity."
Lizardbus watched him twirl
a blob of glass into a wide plate.
"I don't know how you can keep
going after all the beautiful things
got broken," Lizardbus said.
"Glass is infinitely recyclable,"
Dale said. "To be a glassworker
is to understand that being broken
is not the end of the journey."
"Yeah," Lizardbus said softly.
"People need that message now."
* * *
Notes:
"What I learnt a long time ago, is to let the glass make itself. Use the fire and the heat, the centrifugal force and gravity."
-- Dale Chihuly
Chihuly Garden and Glass is an exhibit in the Seattle Center directly next to the Space Needle, showcasing the studio glass of Dale Chihuly. It opened in May 2012 at the former site of the defunct Fun Forest amusement park. The Big One reduced it to colorful rubble, but people have been working on salvage since then.
Dale Chihuly is an American glass artist. He is well known in the field of blown glass, "moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture".
fuzzyred. It belongs to the Big One thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. It follows "The Bones of Chihuly" but is listed after "To Repair the Damage of the Lumberman.""Let the Glass Make Itself"
[Tuesday, July 5, 2016]
Dale Chihuly was taking it slow
in the aftermath of the Big One.
He had to; the West Coast
no longer had the infrastructure
to do anything as quickly as before.
Someone had been sending out
portable metal forges and glass forges,
so Dale claimed some for himself.
He needed them for going through
the ruins of Chihuly Garden and Glass.
Like most of Rain City, the museum
had been reduced to colorful rubble.
Dale and some of his students
went through the wreckage
to salvage whatever they could.
Volunteers helped too, including
a team of teleporters who could
transport large containers.
Just clearing away some
of the mess made it easier
to work with what remained.
Now and then, a piece of glass
was returned whole, unbroken.
Dale was saving those to build
a miracle monument later on,
whenever he collected enough.
Mostly people brought shards to
him to create something new.
"How do you know what
to make?" asked Lizardbus.
"What I learnt a long time ago,
is to let the glass make itself,"
said Dale. "Use the fire and the heat,
the centrifugal force and gravity."
Lizardbus watched him twirl
a blob of glass into a wide plate.
"I don't know how you can keep
going after all the beautiful things
got broken," Lizardbus said.
"Glass is infinitely recyclable,"
Dale said. "To be a glassworker
is to understand that being broken
is not the end of the journey."
"Yeah," Lizardbus said softly.
"People need that message now."
* * *
Notes:
"What I learnt a long time ago, is to let the glass make itself. Use the fire and the heat, the centrifugal force and gravity."
-- Dale Chihuly
Chihuly Garden and Glass is an exhibit in the Seattle Center directly next to the Space Needle, showcasing the studio glass of Dale Chihuly. It opened in May 2012 at the former site of the defunct Fun Forest amusement park. The Big One reduced it to colorful rubble, but people have been working on salvage since then.
Dale Chihuly is an American glass artist. He is well known in the field of blown glass, "moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture".
(no subject)
Date: 2026-04-27 05:58 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2026-04-27 07:15 pm (UTC)