"Michaelmas" by Sybil Andrews

I last wrote about a Sybil Andrews woodcut in 2012, here. All her prints evoke a similar response from me - I hear drumming, feel a fierce and steady wind blowing, and no sentences that come to mind seem to do justice to the image before my eyes. But I can put forth my best effort.

Seize and hurl
First man one, then man two
Back and forth, like a seesaw
Balanced on a cliff
The carts below await, and yet
Simultaneously roll back and forth
In a race to stand still
Seize and hurl
Plunge the fork in, then fling
Into the firey below
Or is it above?
So much vertigo
So much more to go

"Sledgehammers" by Sybil Andrews

Lean back
Raise head
Pull down and
Strike - THUMP!
A steady rhythm
Each swing of the hammer
One fluid movement
The tools
Extensions of the bodies
The bodies
A collective machine
Weight and force spiral in, while
A trail of wind ripples out
It is like music, or
A blooming flower
The way work should be