Blank Canvas

Blank Canvas

I stared at a blank canvas today, 

 and I was scared

Scared that the canvas was a mirror

 and that I was blank

Scared that the canvas had won 

 even before one drop of paint was laid

Scared that all creativity was lost 

 in looking at this vast white nothingness

Then it happened; the paint spilled in irregular shapes and forms

I thought "What a mess!" 

       Then it hit me, it's a mess, now make something of it

The more I painted the less I feared

       That what would emerge from the blankness

               would be seen as art, beauty or more

I painted that canvas 

until every corner was taken with paint. 

No longer it's orginal white

The canvas now had my sweat and labor 

woven into it's tight weave.

What will it become--who knows?

It's not a blank canvas anymore.

By Jim Drake