"No books or tests" writ on the board,
you sauntered in, no suit, cuffs up,
along with mug of who knows what,
then sat to sip and look around,
eyes widened by those faces found:
your class surprised to be at ease
with someone of your expertise.

Within a week, you walked us through
the Renaissance, wherein we knew
this class would paint such memories
long after we received degrees.

I still recall those things you said,
about the artists living, dead,
their secrets, why their works would last
beyond the shadows of the past
to teach and reach us here, today,
to show what textbooks fail to say.

Your lessons left us such insights
to guard against the fading lights,
impart our timeless truths to see
the ways our art could set minds free.