DeWitt Henry

DeWitt Henry’s prose collection, ENDINGS & BEGINNINGS: FAMILY ESSAYS (MadHat Press, 2021), was longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, 2022.  His first poetry collection, RESTLESS FOR WORDS: POEMS, will be published by Finishing Line Press in 2022. Poems have appeared in Constellations, Ibbetson Street, On the Seawall, Plume, Axon, American Journal of Poetry, Banyan Review and others. He was the founding editor of Ploughshares and is Prof. Emeritus at Emerson College. Details at www.dewitthenry.com.

ANDREW WYETH

Walking north, while traffic passed,I saw from Bridge Street bridgeupstream, where the current hits rocksand broken concrete from blocks that once held waterwheels for the brick-walled mills on opposite banks, how midday sun struck a lower casement on the far building, which reflected its image,distinct as a photograph, bright onthe dark spill, foam and rush,where the current swirled back, a counter wave, and the main flow kept straight and under the bridge.All that drama!  Commotion!   Vivid yellows, reds, browns, brick,reeds, grasses (a quiet pool belowto my left, where two geese paddled),turquoise sky, green, swift and constantflow, the image of the windowprojected, complete with silhouetteof a tree branch, like a carpet,floating, fixed.  I paused to letthese marvels register; then kept onin my crossing, heading home.  Even time of day was part,fall into winter.  Eterne in mutability.One more canvas Andrew Wyeth failedto capture, paint, and frame.

DeWitt Henry

ANDREW WYETH

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