Reach into the crucible
for a gather of molten glass
to poise on your blow pipe.
Roll the glass on the wooden marver,
keep it in constant motion.
Glass cannot rest.
Select from the 400 possible colors: tangerine turquoise
cobalt amethyst
Roll the glass over the color.
Return it to the glory hole,
let it glow like a candy apple.
Blowing glass requires another human.
Slowly move the glass onto the punty.
This transfer to another person is tricky.
Trust the passage of the glowing glass.
Strike the glass so that is severs from your blow pipe.
Then into the annealing oven at 960 degrees.
Glass is hard to rescue.
Speak the language of the sun
as you blow words into the gather.
Blow prayers.
Notice the flames on the inside of the glass.
Cool off the other end of the blow pipe in a barrel of water.
Protect this slow cooling.
You never know if the vessel will break.
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The heat wave continued on Monday, so I did not have a very exciting day, though we did walk to the park in the afternoon, trying to stay in the shade as much as possible. I didn't finish the laundry because running the dryer made the apartment so hot. We watched some of the Orioles game, which ended unfortunately, and the Mariners game, which ended well for them, plus Cal Raleigh hit yet another home run.
Since there's nothing else we watch on Mondays and the fall season shows haven't dropped yet, we plowed on through the middle of the fifth season of Poldark, which has no use for any female character other than Saint Demelza -- Caroline buys dresses and talks to her dog more than George talks to his dead wife, Morwenna whimpers, Tess is this season's Evil Bitch. From Art in the Garden in Bellevue, some lovely glass:
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