abide with me

In private collection
sold through Edgewater Gallery

When I discovered this barn on Creek Road in Clarendon, Vermont,
I was enchanted by the kingfisher blue windows that reflected the
sky. I painted ‘Lovingkindness’ as an offering to those sparkling
clean windows. With this painting, I listened to George Eliot’s
Middlemarch and became absorbed into another form of lovingkindness.

(I almost named the painting Middle March in homage to the book.)

Abide

Forgive me if I forget
with the birdsong and the day’s
last glow folding into the hands
of the trees, forgive me the
few syllables of the autumn crickets,
the year’s last firefly winking
like a penny in the shoulder’s weeds,
if I forget the house, if I forget
the day as the evening star
pours out its whiskey over the gravel
and asphalt I’ve walked
for years along, if I startle
when you put your hand in mine,
if I wonder how long your light
has taken to reach me here.
— Jake Adam York