THE PLAYMAKER…
For Mike Francis
…realising the hopes, dreams, nightmares, visions,
of other artists;
transporting us from a silent, empty black box to
Kwazulu, Hastings, the Marches, Belfast, the Balkans,
and endless rooms and streets in Ellesmere Port;
transporting us to a roundhouse, a pigeon loft, a ferry,
a seashore, a desert, a hill fort, a lonely farm, a cave;
truly gifted – with more than a touch of genius;
rigorously creative – solving problems with
always elegant, quality solutions;
mastering a repertoire of skills –
carpentry, metal-work, information technology;
mastering a range of technologies –
wood, metal, plastic, sound, light;
understanding, appreciating, exploiting
the grace and strength of materials;
a modest, unassuming, self-deprecating perfectionist.
Doreen Levin
June 4, 2014David Selzer, I was intrigued by your poem PLAYMAKER (For Mike Francis.) Only a sensitive playwright, and perhaps the cast, can really appreciate the efforts of the person responsible for visualising and creating eight changes of scenery in a play. Here, in your poem, we learn of the many virtues of an imaginative Mike Francis whose genius and creative skills at so many levels, can warm the audience each time it is “Curtain Up!” A great tribute.