Why Look at Paintings

(in a show by Rick Gedney)

After seeing last night

how Hudson River

light filled paintings

this morning

I feel light

meaningless
yet multitudinous

like a drift of

confetti dandelion

fluff

dust
motes caught in air

and slowly falling

silent words forming
a senseless skim

on my first cup of coffee

words
need us to breathe them

out

to be heard

but last night river and trees

spoke in breaths

held
on walls

in thousand-dot trees

river strokes disappearing

like words into bodies

brought to light

in scents of rocks and

water-filled air

the sense I had

gazing

at painted canvas

of all that was waiting

in fullness

meaning to greet me

--(c) Catherine Gonick, 01/16/23