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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 **

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4 Responses

  3. 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?

  4. 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.