"What the caterpiller calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly" (-Lao tzu)

A Study of Two Pears
(-Wallace Stevens)

1

Opusculum paedagogicum
The pears are not viols,
Nudes or bottles.
They resemble nothing else.
2

They are yellow forms
Composed of curves
Bulging toward the base.
They are touched red. 3

They are not flat surfaces
Having curved outlines.
They are round
Tapering toward the top.


In the way they are modelled
There are bits of blue.
A hard dry leaf hangs
From the stem.
5

The yellow glistens.
It glistens with various yellows,
Citrons, oranges and greens
Flowering over the skin.

6

The shadows of the pears
Are blobs on the green cloth.
The pears are not seen
As the observer wills.