Questions for the Artist
after “October 2017” by Keith Thomson (Jasper, Alberta)
What were you considering, wondering
as you walked into the aspen woods
that late afternoon, watercolors in hand?
Did you picture tall tapers aflame
in homage to the day, light illuminating
the left edge of your canvas?
Perhaps you watched loose-limbed
leaves sway like dancers, heard hoary
marmots whistle with magpies.
Did you breathe in the woodsmoke of nearby
campfires? Notice the distant rumble of thunder
then smell the approach of evening rain?
Perhaps you trembled at the golden glory
before you, sighed in reverence for the
palette you held in your aging hands.
How did you mix magenta, tangerine,
cardinal red to translate this moment
into this story of candlelight and shadow?
Perhaps the colors bled onto the page
without thought, muscle memory
of growing old with these same aspens.
But did you imagine me at the gallery
sipping a glass of burgundy, money to spend?
You could not know your painting replicated
the faded photograph that hangs in my home,
an impression of almost-forgotten days
of youth, woodsmoke and aspen.
Patricia Joslin is a retired educator who was raised in the Midwest and now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Poems have been published in Kakalak, Tipton Poetry Journal, and Jerry Jazz Musician. Her chapbook, I’ll Buy Flowers Again Tomorrow, a collection of poems about loss and healing, was published in 2023 by Charlotte Lit Press. When not in Charlotte you may find her with grandsons in Maryland and Minnesota or on a tour in some faraway place, typically as a solo traveler.
“While traveling in Canada, I visited the Mountain Gallery in Jasper, Alberta. My intention was to purchase a piece of art as a memento of my solo trip. I fell in love with a watercolor by Keith Thomson titled October 2017. Coincidentally, that date was the last birthday that my husband celebrated before his death in 2018. I had to buy it! This ekphrastic poem conveys the beauty of the painting, but also my joy at finding this perfect replacement for the faded photograph of a similar scene from my youth. The photograph of aspens that the painting replaced was taken in October, 2001, on my husband's 50th birthday. A fitting tribute to a life well-lived.”