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: PattiJoy Posan

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for PattiJoy’s reflection and poem Introduction to Stillness. The poems in my Book of Hours trace the subtle movements of the day —

Read More »

Mourning Pages: The Write Way to Grieve

Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims, This Friday, September 18th, we are pleased to welcome Wisdom Council member and Lift Every Voice Book Club conversation partner Claudia Love Mair to lead us in the retreat Mourning Pages: The Write Way to Grieve. Below is a note

Read More »

Monk in the World Guest Post: Richard Bruxvoort Colligan

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for an excerpt from Wisdom Council member Richard Bruxvoort Colligan’s book Dangerous Songs: The Psalms and a Gloriously Disrupted Life. Ready or Not:

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.