The poet, now 90 and widowed, has written many poems of thanks. Even though one would not call him overall an optimist.
Thank you my lifelong afternoon
late in this season that has no age
Ericksons, 1973, tempera on hardboard panel, Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2007, American. Loaned by a private collection to the Brandywine River Museum, 2017
Portrait of my Grandmother (Emily Motley), 1922, oil on canvas. Archibald J. Motley, Jr., 1891-1981, American. Baltimore Museum of Art
Jeb, 1980, oil on canvas. Elaine de Kooning, 1918-1989, American. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
New England Woman, 1885, oil on canvas. Cecilia Beaux, 1855-1942, American. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Eleven’Clock News and details, tempera on panel, 1966. George A. Weymouth, 1936-2016, American. Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
Archaic Memory, 1988, acrylic on canvas. Fred Danziger, American born 1948. State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg
Fanny/Fingerpainting, 1985, oil on canvas. Chuck Close, American born 1940. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Chillin’, clay, wall paint, acrylic paint. Susan Strassberg on exhibit at the Clay Studio, Philadelphia in 2015
Man in a Cafe, 1912, oil on canvas. Juan Gris, 1887-1927, Spanish. Philadelphia Museum of Art
thank you for my windows above the rivers
The Schuylkill at its last weir before its confluence with the Delaware River, Philadelphia. October 2017
The Brandywine River at Breck’s Mill, Greenville, Delaware, 2017
The Brandywine River at Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, 2017
Darby Creek near its headwaters, Waterloo Mills Preserve, Chester and Delaware counties, Pennsylvania, 2017
The Wissahickon at the Morris Arboretum, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, 2017
thank you for the true love you brought me to when it was time at last
Man and Woman, 1926, oil on canvas. Rufino Tamayo, 1899-1991, Mexican. Philadelphia Art Museum
and for words
The Writer, 1925, oil on cardboard. Manuel Rodriguez Lozano, 1896-1971, Mexican. Private Collection on loan to the Philadelphia Art Museum in 2016
Girl Writing, 1941, oil on canvas. Milton Avery, 1885-1965. Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
that come out of silence and take me by surprise
Self-Portrait, 1922, oil on canvas. Adolfo Best Maugard, 1891-1964. Private collection on loan to the Philadelphia Art Museum in 2016
The Reader, c. 1660s, oil on canvas. Eglon van der Neer, 1635/36-1703, Dutch. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Interior with a Young Girl Reading, 1905-06, oil on canvas. Henri Matisse, 1869-1954, French. MOMA, NY
and have carried me through the clear day
without once turning to look at me
Sailing in the Mist, 1890’s, oil on canvas. John H. Twachtman, 1853-1902, American. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
thank you for friends and long echoes of them
Round Dance, 1909, oil on canvas. Emil Nolde, 1867-1956, German. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Two Girls, c. 1892, oil on canvas. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1841-1919, French. Philadelphia Art Museum
Black Girl Dragging White Girl, 1992, oil and charcoal on canvas. Kim Dingle, American born 1951. Corcoran Collection at the National Gallery of Art
Vignette IV, 2005, acrylic on PVC panel.
Kerry James Marshall, American born 1955. Loaned to an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, NY in 2016 by Susan and Lew Manilow.
Wapping on Thames, oil on canvas, 1860’s. James McNeil Whistler, 1834-1903, American. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Conversation in a Garden, late 1960s, ink on paper. Eileen Goodman, American born 1937. Exhibited at The Woodmere Museum in 2016
Three Girls, 1941, oil and pencil on wood panel. William H. Johnson, 1901-1970, American. MOMA, NY
My Friends, and detail, oil on canvas, 1887. Viggo Johansen, 1851-1935, Danish. Philadelphia Art Museum
and for those mistakes that were only mine
Crouching Statuette of Adam, 1896, plaster. Paul Wayland Bartlett, 1865-1925. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art
for the homesickness that guides the young plovers
Deer in Sunset, oil on canvas, 1946. Karl Knaths, 1891-1941, American. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
from somewhere they loved before
Details of Deer in Sunset oil on canvas, 1946. Karl Knaths, 1891-1941, American. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
they woke into it to another place
they loved before they ever saw it
Bird’s House, 1989, varnish and watercolour on white Strathmore paper. Jamie Wyeth, American born 1946. Private collection on display at the Brandywine River Museum, Chaddsford, Pennsylvania
thank you whole body and hand and eye
Self Portrait, 1921, oil on canvas. David Alfaro Siqueiros, 1896-1974, Mexican. On display at the Philadelphia Art Museum in 2016
Self-portrait in Velvet, 1926, oil on canvas. Frieda Kahlo, 1907-1954, Mexican. Exhibited in the winter of 2016 at the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Frieda Kahlo’s body, of course, was not whole for most of her life.
It was touched first by childhood polio and then by a catastrophic bus accident when she was still a teenager. This broke her spine, pelvis, collarbone, ribs. She died at 47 after a life of intermittent, great pain.
Eight days before her death she added words to a painted melon: her fealty to life lived creatively and with passion:
Viva la Vida Watermelons, 1952-54, oil on masonite. Frieda Kahlo, 1907-54, Mexican. Frieda Kahlo Museum, Coyoacan, Mexico
Three Women at the Spring, 1921, oil on canvas. Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish. MOMA, NY
thank you for sights and moments known
Detail of a painting in progress, oil on canvas, 2017. Angela Valeria, friend, mother and grandmother of friends, Brooklyn, NY
only to me who will not see them again
except in my mindʻs eye where they have not changed
thank you for showing me the morning stars
Updraft, 1976, acrylic on canvas. Edna Wright Andrade, 1917-2008, American. Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington
Peinture 130 x 89 cm, 6 Mars 1955, oil on canvas. Pierre Soulages, French, born 1919. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Icarus from Jazz, 1947, pochoir. Henri Matisse, 1869-1954, French. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Deep Sky, 1984, aquatints. James Turrell, American light architect and artist, born 1943. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Shooting Stars, 1952, glass, casein, and tempera on Masonite. Irene Rice Pereira, 1902-1971, American. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Two sheets of painted, fluted glass sitting in front of a painted panel. The composition changes depending where you stand and how much ambient light there is.
and for the dogs who are guiding me
On the Desert, before 1867, oil on panel. Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1824-1904, French. Baltimore Art Museum
Gimme Shelter, mural on Lombard Street between 12th and 13th Streets, Philadelphia, designed and painted by David Guinn in 2004 for the City of Philadelphia Mural Program
Girl and the Field, 2017, oil and acrylic on canvas. Graham Preston, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
Gimme Shelter, mural on Lombard Street between 12th and 13th Streets, Philadelphia, designed and painted by David Guinn in 2004 for the City of Philadelphia Mural Program