Stunning, "Silence," art and poetry

MEDITATION

Just out the window,
black silhouettes of trees
remind me of those
halcyon days with you,
when we climbed out of the
cellar toward enlightenment.
Now, at a glance, the wild
birds swing into view,
obscuring the real world
of young men dying
to get home, and the
snow that falls on
our brains stays solid - never
melting into springtime.
On the ferry, we sit and
compare notes as to whom
in life has suffered the most;
men, women, boys, or girls?
Suddenly, in a revelation, you
say it is the Buddha over on
Main, who sits on his plywood
altar, surrounded by plastic
flowers, subjected to all the
passersby, who have never had
a Zen thought of their own…

--K. Lawson Gilbert

I am stunned by this gift to go with my painting. I've met this Pennsylvania poet through my blog and hers, Old Mossy Moon. Here's the link...prepare to be stunned by the depth of her poetry.

http://oldmossymoon.blogspot.com/

That's how we've connected...blogosphere, as the techies say. She loves Whitman so we have common ground. She offered to buy a watercolor for a Christmas card--which I sent, and then I did one of Old Mossy Moon just for the fun of it. Instead of a check for the art, I said, "I'll trade you a poem." Art for art. I'm stunned. Neither of us are going to retire on our art, but all art is kin. Images some of which I can't comprehend, but so...a poem is a work of art, like any other art...I don't have to comprehend...it just is. And this matches my watercolor in mood and image.

This was my Jan. 5 birthday painting, a child of frustration of being too much of a Capricorn, posted under "Capricorn days," as I listened to Simon and Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence."

Thank you Kay. Everytime I read it, I see and feel more. Walt would be proud.