Soaring

Soaring
18" x 24" x 1" mixed media on wood panel

Caged Bird

Some believe there's somewhere in the brain
that senses minor fluctuations in the Earth's
magnetic field and uses a sort of memory
of that to travel the same route year after year
over thousands of miles, over open ocean
on moonless, clouded nights, and a built-in clock
that, save for weather's influence, tells
when it's time to go. But they utter nothing
of thwarted dreams in birds' brains, how
a few cubic feet near the ground, however
well-kept and lighted, however large it seems
around a small bright bird, is like a fist
closed tight on feather and bone, how, certain times
of year, the bird's heart races as if to power flight.

- Matthew J. Spireng
(originally published in Inspiration Point from Bright Hill Press and Out of Body from Bluestem Press at Emporia State University)

I am posting yet another not-quite-finished painting. It's a large version of a small painting I did for one of the Journeys books that passed through my hands many months ago. Although the colors and values look different, in "real life," it's actually quite close to the original painting. I just stink at taking photographs of my paintings!