To me, every hour of the light and dark is a miracle.
—Walt Whitman
Balanced against morning frost
I do not see
the great blue heron
wading in the river
so I put it there
*
Meredith mentions
a student who insists
on painting
into the foreground
a rock
*
“All she needs is a darker color,”
Meredith says, “and a value
like a triangle
and the canvas
would be full of light”
*
You do not have
to be talented—even
my three year old girl
knows how to paint
something that makes her smile
*
It is not a painting,
this life, still
there was a heron here not
long ago, standing in frost
it was so beautiful
*
Here and not here,
light and dark,
so many years spent
debating the two—this morning
I see it, the river chimed in frost