1.  Sun 
       Zarina - woodcut; 1999 (from the series Home is a Foreign Place)

          Wherever, whenever you go 
          however far 
          by whatsoever means 
          whatever place you seek 
          at journey’s end 
          the sun if-ever is never 
          a place called home 
          nor evermore 
          a time to live. 

2.  The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity
       Odilon Redon - oiled charcoal on paper; 1882

          The eye, a child’s balloon, ascends 
          to question everything it sees below 
          and beg for answers from the sky 
          that seems to know the only truth— 
          why the earth is blue, not green, 
          neither square nor flat 
          why everyone below appears so small 
          and dies alone and indistinct. 

          Such a strange balloon it is 
          so much a child’s 
          that climbs to Heaven on a prayer 
          questioning everything it sees above— 
          why the clouds are white, not red 
          forever changing to somethings else 
          other than what they were before 
          and if, in fact, Heaven is 
          where it was meant to be. 

3.  The Frozen Sounds
       Adolph Gottlieb - oil on canvas; 1951

          Sounds frozen in the zero air 
          cold winds that numb 
          neither rising nor falling 
          a pinioned bird 
          with feathers hard as ice 
          unable to fly or land 
          silent in the glacial slow 
          then silent at the absolute 
          a symphony of silence 
          never heard.