Artist of the Waters

                     for Lori Gordon


When the rains stopped
crashing and the ocean stopped
ravaging and the tears began
to slow,

only then, she stepped over
the rubble that was her own—
from plates to canvas,
from paints to shoes—stepped
into the rest, and began
to look.

Looking past the waste
of each castaway artifact—family
photo, mantelpiece, the post
of a bed, the leg
of a chair, a book, a comb, a still
life, a salt shaker, a magazine
cover in a language unknown,
a dog collar, a dress, the arm
of a doll—she meant
to see

beyond the tattered and torn and
broken things, to gaze
into the pain
of the loss
of each and the whole
that wove together each quilt
of a life. And in the seeing she began
to heal.

published on artist's site here

© 2007 DJ Gaskin