(Wrote this as a birthday poem to a woman painter I know.  She tells me she’s been showing and sending it around to other folks and how much those folks like it.  So I looked at it again, and, you know, it would apply to Julie Waters too.)

art is the heart and mind

putting color into the most dismal day

art is a way of life

the way things should be

art is people agreeing

that we are all connected

by brushstrokes and words

to a work in progress

a creation that will evoke

the splendor of all that matters to us

behind our eyes when we behold

the masterpiece of life

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.