Visit the Abbey of the Arts online retreat platform to access your programs:

Visual Meditation: Autumn in Seattle

***

Again the wind
Flakes gold-leaf from the trees
And the painting darkens—as if a thousand penitents
Kissed an icon
Till it thinned
Back to bare wood,
Without diminishment.

-Jane Hirshfield

***

-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts

(all photos except for the last one taken at the Seattle Arboretum, end photo taken at Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle)

** Come back Monday, October 27th for our next Poetry Party **

** Wednesday, October 29th will be our next Sacred Artist Interview with Leah Piken Kolidas **

You might also enjoy

Monk in the World Guest Post: Christine Davis

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Christine Davis’s reflection and poem Life to Life. In recent years, after deaths and losses, changes and griefs, I’ve moved farther and

Read More »

On Pentecost ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess

Click CC to turn closed captions on or off. On Pentecost*Spirit of courage,we stand huddled too,like the disciples in the upper room,wondering what is real and true anymore.Reveal to us the pulse of your firein each of our heartsand send us with bread and rosesout

Read More »

Monk in the World Guest Post: Elaine Breckenridge

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Elaine Breckenridge’s reflection An Expanding Pentecost. “Suddenly from heaven, there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind…and divided tongues,

Read More »

4 Responses

  1. Christine! Jane Hirshfield’s “back to bare wood” seems to transform European art history into Japanese Zen (without diminishing either). Exquisite duck hen — a composition for lute and cello?

  2. Good poem. I like that the “kisses” took away the “gilt” but without diminshing (in my reading) either the kisser or the kissee.

    And my favorite picture…the mushrooms! You really captured the light, Christine.