June 2021
Tom Montag
theoldmonk85@gmail.com
Author's Note: Perhaps art exists in some parallel universe. Perhaps that is why writing about the woman in an imaginary painting is attractive to me. Words mean as color and shape and line mean. Sometimes that's enough, sometimes it's not.

from
"The Woman in an Imaginary Painting"

Perhaps she exists
in some parallel
universe. Perhaps

the light there is
sweeter than ours.
Perhaps death does

not come to them
and eternity is
not feared as it

is here. Perhaps hope
is a pale sun
in bright blue sky.

from
"The Woman in an Imaginary Painting"

She is like
the light itself.

She is like
an egret, waiting.

She is like
evening accepting

the darkness to come.
The whole of

everything is
half of her.

If you look
at her again,

you will see it.

from
"The Woman in an Imaginary Painting"

Finally, perhaps, she understands
what art is, what the artist
intended. The purpose of this

stillness held by shape and color.
Her very own naked pose
and the way light plays against it.

The way silence echoes
to the farthest edge of
the universe. Yes, finally

she understands, this is what
one does to avoid the great
emptiness at the heart of things.
©2021 Tom Montag
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell her or him. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL