A friend Joe Pascoe is a poet and my habit of drawing portraits has been replied to in poetry
Sharp pencil
for Sam Golding
Sharp pencil
Honed to a perfect cone
Breath on the lead
Exiting any shavings
Hold it like a pen
Or flat to shade
Easily done
Mind and body
Draw as you walk
Imagine scrawling out white clouds
Or lovingly compose a street
Add wiggly birds
Diminishing in flight
It’s easy
Flip the page
It might be a cat, ambitious
I have a friend who can do this
Outline, clever strokes
Textures and mood
Sam Golding
Look at the lead
Warming and rounding
Less pressure
More pressure
Light and dark
Draw more, learn more
Stones and water
The day itself
People in life
Life within trees
Sunlight through the leaves
Sharpen again
Less pointy, more forgiving
Kinder to your friends
As the black lead ages
As your pencil shortens
And the beautiful drawings pile up.
Joe Pascoe 2020
