which I have already celebrated
the Babe in its Mother's arms
the Wise Men in their stolen
splendor
and Joseph and the soldiery
attendant
with their incredulous faces
make a scene copied we'll say
from the Italian masters
but with a difference
the mastery
of the painting
and the mind the resourceful mind
that goverened the whole
the alert mind dissatisfied with
what it is asked to
and cannot do
accepted the story and painted
it in the brilliant
colors of the chronicler
the downcast eyes of the Virgin
as a work of art
for profound worship
--William Carlos Williams