Ode to the Mosaic

Praise the pieces as well as the whole.

Praise what the artist sees in them, the scattered

tiles or the sorted, each color in its own plastic quarantine.

Praise the unity of the shattered.

Praise the glass and ceramic, the glue and the grout.

Praise tools that score, clip, press and polish.

Praise the clean break and the shards, the grout dust’s sting,

the artist who fears no hurt.

Praise the mosaic, the quilt, the collage,

every whole greater than its parts.

Praise the pieces that will not be fit.

Amy Watkins Copeland is a graduate of Spalding University's brief residency MFA in writing program. Her poems have recently appeared in The MacGuffin, The Dos Passos Review and The Louisville Review, which nominated her poem "Photo of My Brother and Sister Sorting Apples" for a 2006 Pushcart Prize. She pays the bills by proofreading camping guides for AAA. She lives in Orlando, Florida, with her daughter and her husband, a graphics designer and mosaic artist.