The Paint Box

(Lake Superior, by Lawren Harris, 1885-1970,
Canadian painter)

THE PAINT BOX

“Cobalt and umber and ultramarine,
Ivory black and emerald green ─
What shall I paint to give pleasure to you?”
“Paint for me somebody utterly new.”

“I have painted you tigers in crimson and white.”
“The colors were good and you painted aright.”
“I have painted the cook and a camel in blue
And a panther in purple.” “You painted them true.

Now mix me a color that nobody knows,
And paint me a country where nobody goes,
And put in it people a little like you,
Watching a unicorn drinking the dew.”

~ E. V. Rieu (1887-1972), English poet