Claire's Blessing

"Reflections" (c) 2001 by PES

This photo was one of those chance shots you get once in a while. It is looking at a print titled "Orchard" by David Smith Harrison. In the reflection one can glimpse oranges on a counter in front of blue tiles and in the distance a eucalyptus grove between the fir framing of the picture windows. The layers of reality and perception fascinated me and the camera was close at hand.

This experience and the resultant photograph shape the acrostic poem based on a birthday card from my friend Claire in 2002. She had written: “Paul, Stitcher Sower Maker Dancer of Life” (signed) C.

Blessed are those friends who evoke the better sides of us and blest are we to have them as friends.

Claire’s Blessing

Sunlight angles down the building faces,
Thin clouds dissolve in the summer morning.
I sit after late breakfast, observing strangers peopling
The avenue, thinking of friends old and new. A
Chained bicycle and I, motions paused—what roads
Have my wild, worn treads touched, what winds felt?
Each day a new stage of unpredictable journey,
Rife with detours, delights, disasters, discoveries.

Sound, sight, smell all pattern each moment—
Oh, the syrup scent in the Red Tractor! Traffic, voices,
Wind-rippled bottlebrush—the other faces
Eyes cannot see but projected in my mind, layering
Realities together. That time I looked at the false Cézanne

Mirrored in the glass of the “Orchard” print, citrus
Arranged casually on the counter, and securely
Kept at a distance, the unruly eucalyptus—
Energies, solid things, representations all at once
Reflecting light—sun, earth, the soul in interchange.

Dappled vision of shifting stuff, what depths and heights
And far-flung reaches penetrate my narrow moments!
Now I sit, poised amid these layered forces, wondering.
Chance and choice and universes will go into my next moment.
Entry to paradise: this moment, each moment—
Raw matter woven into eternal now and boundless bliss.

Oranges and cookie jars, walnut trees, blue tiles,
Farnesi windows, gum trees, fir window frames—all

Laced within each other, lover’s knot—place and
Infinity—sweet, sad singers of life’s song—
Fresh hopes, old aches—all this and
Everything reflected, held, expressed in my heart, and God’s.

August 16, 2002
--(c) 2002 by the BB, of course