Thicket




This poem, from Shirley Kaufman, came in response to the paintings. It seems right to include it here as well:


A Season of Birds

for Tony Dubovsky

They come fluttering out of
my printer
only one
with its wings spread
but I know they are flying.
How else would they get here?

Absolute attentiveness
for its own sake
Every flicker of the brush
like my reaching
for the right word.

And love. He wanted
to say that word as well

Chavela Vargas late in life
her smoky voice: Pintor
si pintas, con amor…

to be banned from Paradise
forever because of their
innocence
not lust
not even greed
that longing in the mouth
only to taste

and mine? how it continues
in my bodiless mind
and somewhere between
the wings of my shoulders
even now especially
now


Thank you from Shirley