I want to live – large handmade platter

Description

A large hand built pottery bowl/platter, with original poetry, on a tripod base. It is 11cm high and 38cm in diameter.

This ceramic platter was shaped using a slab of heavily grogged clay and then imprinted with a poem. It has then had two firings in our electric kiln, the second one after being decorated with underglazes and oxides, giving it an aged and naturalistic look, somewhat in contrast to the topicality of the words it contains.

The piece is imprinted with this poem –

 

I want to live in a world in which refugees are welcomed

As if coming home. As if the food they are given

Was cooked by their own mothers.

 

I want to live in a world in which people share what they have

With those who have nothing. Where fear of scarcity is foolish

Because we finally recognised abundance.

 

I want to live in a world in which love for neighbour

Makes hedges and fences inconvenient. As if real estate

Was not real after all.

 

I want to live in a world in which guns are things for museums

Behind glass with suits of armour. Where tanks are

Used only to store liquid.

 

I want to live in a world in which nothing is expendable, as if landfills

were already full. As if bags of bolts and empty cans

Could be used again tomorrow.

 

I want to live in a world in which children are thrilled by birdsong

and gloriously appalled by black beetles. Where great adventure is made

Out of mountain and forest.

 

I want to live.