First Edition |  Poetry

Music

by kathy barr

Her paintings

are orchestrations

of moments

days

hours

months

years

a lifetime

perhaps yours

Quiet down

and you’ll see the weather

seas shifting

darkness arriving in the north

a cloud disappearing

you could be asleep

or waiting for rain

Her baton moves just so

strings breathe

and somewhere a piano

is breaking apart

showering its keys

offering to distill itself

to burst the known

and distance the expected

leaving you stranded

in silence

If you listen

all is accounted for

finely tuned

soundlessly colored

Kathy Barr is a poet, printer, bookbinder, book artist and the proprietress of Small Plot Press. She co-founded and co-edited Room: A Women’s Literary Journal. Her publications include “The Hard Thing About Yellow” (Cheek Editions), “Marginalia; Diligence” (Small Plot Press) and “Exhibits I Have Seen Mounted” (Eucalyptus Press). She is currently most inspired by place and landscape and is exploring what combination of poetry, prose and book art floats her boat. She is the director of Old First Concerts in San Francisco.