North River, Marshfield

North River, Marshfield, MA, 2019 20"x20"

The ghost has been vanquished.  It was good to paint a bit larger and use my entire arm to apply paint, not just my fingers as the tiny bird paintings require.  I must give Emily Katherine credit for her photograph that provided a reference source for this painting.  She informs me that the exact location is behind the China Wok in Marshfield.  

Mary Oliver died last month.  Such a great poet...an artist's poet.  With respect and in recognition of her work, I post her poem, The River.

The river

Of my childhood,

That tumbled

Down a passage of rocks

And cut-work ferns,

Came here and there

To the swirl

And slowdown

Of a pool

And I say myself–

Oh, clearly–

As I knelt at one–

Then I saw myself

As if carried away,

As the river moved on.

Where have I gone?

Since then

I have looked and looked

For myself,

Not sure

Who I am, or where,

Or, more importantly, why.

It’s okay–

I have had a wonderful life.

Still, I ponder

Where that other is–

Where I landed,

What I thought, what I did,

What small or even maybe meaningful deeds

I might have accomplished

Somewhere

Among strangers,

Coming to them

As only a river can–

Touching every life it meets–

That endlessly kind, that enduring.