The Artist
To Margaret

At lunch this afternoon a writer-friend
showed me her art. Two talents wrapped up tight
in one — the writer and the artist blend.

Unfair, I rued, that she has coins to spend
in two banks while I pull the weeds and fight
that nagging writers’ block. My new-found friend

read poems I had written, said to tend
the garden where the sunshine casts its light.
This one, the artist-writer, knows to blend

her gifts, to offer compliments, to send
more possibilities my way. My sight,
at lunch this afternoon when a writer-friend

showed me that both of us have much to lend,
was limited. We’ll see our books take flight.
The artist-writer knows so well to blend

creative solitude with business trend.
At lunch this afternoon a writer-friend
said: Artists, with their words or paint, do blend.