Week 16: Water
Year 2021. What does it mean to you? To Addie and I, it is full of hope and promise. It is a turning point. The beginning of the end of a pandemic. The end of a volatile presidency and a return to sensible governance. The end of quarantines, isolation, and social distancing and a return to physical human interaction. We will once again congregate, gather with those we love, see them up close, touch and feel again … not in an impersonal virtual space, but in the very real and beautiful world.
WEEK 16
The 16th theme for the year is Water.
… the sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness …
Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea
ADDIE’S PAINTING
Waterfall
MY POEM
Diamonds on the Water
My heart sank
in the pitch
alone—
upon my table a bowl
of sorrows and a spoon
made of bone.
I expected no one—
only tears
to consecrate this bitter meal.
And yet you came.
And I cried and cried—
long into the joyless night.
Your heart was heavy for mine
We shared my wretched burden.
Mercifully,
you seized my shoulder,
lifted me up
and through my hovel window shone
first light—
diamonds glittered on the water—
precious gifts where before
there were none.
ABOUT THE PAINTING & POETRY PROJECT
We want to celebrate 2021 with an outpouring of creativity and optimism!
We’ve selected 52 themes (one theme per week for the year), and each week for 2021, I will write a poem and Addie will paint a painting inspired by that theme.
This is the sort of big project that artists live for … where we can say what we yearn to say. Big picture stuff. Heart wrenching stuff. Expect surprises, love, and a passion for life.
Check Out Addie’s Instagram Account: www.instagram.com/alchemy.of.art.addie.hirschten/
Check out Addie’s art studio — Studio Alchemy:
studioalchemy.art/
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