For Corot, by Helen Bar-Lev

Women in a Field of Willows, by Camille Corot (France). 1860-1865.

For Corot

You, Corot, my hero,
of course you know
I bought a book of your drawings
thirty years ago
and slept with it under my pillow
for a year or more
slowly absorbing your soul
into my own

You, Corot, sometimes so sombre
often I wonder
how you capture
that leafy silver
in your gossamer trees

How do you control the brush
to form the contours
of the rocks and pines
of forest and countryside?
Your compositions are mine

I am with you as you sit at your easel
in the fields, painting shepherds
and their flocks of sheep 
capturing peace

I breathe your air and see with your eyes
the ease with which your brush
strokes rapidly
as you stroll through nature 
ever the observer

I walk down your shadowy paths 
in the near night of the twilight
of your canvases
and hear birds sing lullabies 
from your ethereal trees

I know your need
to be alone in the forest
and feel your oneness
with the cosmos

Your portraits haunt me
your landscapes enchant me
Am I, are you, part of the same soul?
Are you now me?  Was I once you?

​Helen Bar-Lev

Helen Bar-Lev was born in New York in 1942.  www.helenbarlev.com   She holds a B.A. in Anthropology, has lived in Israel for 46 years and has had nearly 100 exhibitions of her landscape paintings, 34 of which were one-woman shows.  Her poems and artwork have appeared in numerous online and print anthologies.  Six poetry collections, all illustrated by Helen.  She is the Amy Kitchener senior poet laureate and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2013.  She is the recipient of the Homer European Medal for Poetry and Art.  Helen is Assistant to the President of Voices Israel. She lives in Metulla, Israel.