Can one heal a child through paintings?

nat-lipstadt Poems

*for my friend, the artist, Ayesha Joy Burkey* the answer simplest, is there any other way? we paint, fashion jewelry, even human beings, for and from wire, stone, DNA, and paint our harshest critics, ourselves, always we busy saying, not good enough so South Dakota, breathe release, let one whom, you have never in flesh seen, see you through the ten plagues, to a promised answer~land long have I searched for my flawless poem, knowing it my be my next one, each a doorway to the next this one, and the one before, never good enough, keep the essay going, in fourth gear so South Dakota, in hot springs, salve and be saved, rapid city breaths exhaled, in Jerusalem, see the deal sealed breathe release, read out loud, for hereby, and nearby, your voice must join me, in this semi-silent collaboration to make this solo poem into a partnered painting all yours, your very own can't you believe, the mere question you posing, within, the answer, reposing... The creation act, frailties fraught, what we design, never good enough but we paint on, for the paint, when eyes embraced, says *a piece of my grief herein encapsulated, and so on and on, to the next, thus it's entirety lessened, one step closer to diminished you, grief painter right hand cunning, me, grief writer, lest we forget, through our art, that even if our words fail our tongue, the ears, to comprehend, to communicate, to convey, but the eyes they, cannot be denied, eyes, that have gazed upon your painting prayer Of course you heal, tikun (repair) of your world, in every brush stroke, you answer, sufficient, dayenu, and then you Restless Painter, ask again, and answer, af p'aam lo maspiq, never good enough, and I say it once more: can't you believe the mere question posing, within, the answer, reposing... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *"Two small paintings are part of a number I did as an assignment when I went to stay with my son. One of his OCD symptoms is seen in a difficulty to get through doorways. When I showed the collection of work to my teacher she said "do you realize you are painting open doorways?" And indeed, the motif was there whether abstract or realist. Can one heal a child through paintings? Or one's grief at being helpless to change things?"* A.J. Burkey