Hope

Interior with "Hope" (2024)

I wrote a poem once, and nested it inside a book. It was about Heaven. I was out on this vast field, with all of these boxes filled with things, like a giant flea market that stretched around a glowing kingdom as far as I could see. On the other side, there were dark mountains.

The glow was like the light in this photo. Digging through the boxes is like hope. There will be value here, life, love, meaning.

This iris was the first to poke out last spring. I saw it as myself, looking to the next iris, which appears already to be the center of an explosion, compositionally. The lines of trees above and around it like sunbursts.

Underneath, a piece of canvas, with oil paint. The purple represents the past, and the complexities we face in reconciling all of the seemingly important moments, every exchange ever, as though we could possess it all.

The flower stands almost aloof above it. There is no more concern for the world. The inner soul looks out, anticipating an explosion of light.

The past is stopped at the gate.

Look at my life.

And look at your life.