'Pine Grove'

A response to a visual writing prompt from Margo Roby (Wordgathering.)

 Ivan Shishkin Forest Reserve. Pine Grove.  1881

 

 ~Pine Grove~

I’ve been to this painting,

I know its every stick,

And stump, every needle,

The artist has put so

Painstakingly in just

The right places.

I used to be bothered

By its sheer realism,

I could not see behind

Almost a photograph,

A pine grove, that was just

That: a pine grove.

Now I’m older, kinder,

Less complicated,

I travel this painting,

I sail its seven seas

Of wooded land, with pines –

As masts – upright.

I think of ancient Greece,

The cold hearted gods,

The Parthenon, the war

Mongering Athena,

The marble stalks that shoot,

And reach the sky.

I see a flock of girls,

Slender and tall, in their

Sarafans, hair braided,

Stepping out of the dark,

Getting ready to dance,

Waiting for me.

Live for the Love of it,

The Happy Amateur