You might as well befriend the moon– embrace her clouded peekaboos. And music . . .
Receive the tune– you have no time to choose– alone in a crowd or with no one in view. And a smell . . .
Wafts past your nose– what's that? Or who?
Perfume on skin or a place that you knew? Pause. No need to wonder—you know who that was— and who you are as nostalgia winds the second hand 'round.
"Time is a straight line," said he "It moves consecutively, watches as it goes behind and below like walking on a path that winds into— well— no one knows."
"No one knows, that's right," said she. "Simply put, I do agree. But there's no line to speak of. Time bends–not like a knee– more like a finger touching its thumb or a rainbow finding it's spherical end and celebrating with a gentle, 'Come.'"
Time returns to the places we've been. One says, "That memory is far." Another, "The moment is here to stay." Yesterday can be put down but the nows of that day pop up from the ground without notice or sound to delight or confound– it depends on the soiled seconds into which it was bound– moments become recollections and recollections are seeds with a life of their own.
Promises and hope gentleness and rage a touch, a glance a well-appointed room or a half-written page– all are sown into our skin and find their rest in smiles and tears repose and toil love and loss freedom and cost and the way the sunlight lay across the earth at the end or when it all began.
"That was back then," said he. "That is today," said she. The Minutes listened closely, "There is wisdom in both." Time smiled wryly crouched smugly and quietly behind an Autumn tree waiting for the final leaf to fall.
In all your quiet ways my spirit wakes, Like dawn that steals through shutters, soft and slow. Oft have I wondered how your presence makes Veil’d parts of me take courage yet to grow.
Each day my hushed and inward-seeking mind Yields when your voice through shaded mem'ry moves. O’er every folded fear your light I find, Undoing shadows with the truth it proves.
You are the innermost of all my days, The final form within my layered soul. No ornament, nor craft of human praise, Could name the warmth by which you make me whole.
So stand I now, my guarded heart undone, For in your gaze a thousand worlds are one.
Museums invite looking, yet most visitors treat art the way they treat emails: a quick skim, a polite nod, and on to the next thing. We spot a recognizable subject or a pleasing color, think, “Ah yes, culture,” and keep walking. Studies suggest that viewers spend less than thirty seconds with a work of art before moving on. It is possible to tour an entire gallery without truly arriving anywhere at all.
Slow Art suggests another way to exist among masterpieces.
Rooted in the broader Slow Movement and formally organized with Slow Art Day in 2010, the practice encourages viewers to remain with a single artwork long enough for something meaningful to happen. The idea is simple: stop rushing. Stop conquering exhibitions like they’re errands. Let a painting interrupt the pace of your day.
Of course, the mind resists immediately. The moment we sit down and dare to look, our thoughts fling themselves into crisis: seventeen neglected texts, three unpurchased groceries, and the intrusive belief that productivity is our moral duty, and this bench is a crime scene. Apparently, stillness is very dramatic.
Yet if we continue to sit, the noise eventually settles. We start to notice the obvious things we missed when our thoughts were busy staging a coup: light falling across a shoulder, a line of color we would have sworn was not there a moment ago. Philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty argued that seeing is never passive; we do not merely observe the world. We are in conversation with it. Given time, a painting stops acting like an object and begins to behave like a presence. It answers back.
Meanwhile, neuroscience is offering evidence for what artists have always suspected. When we linger with an artwork, the brain does more than register shape and shade. Regions connected to memory, imagination, and empathy start sparking awake, as though the mind suddenly recalls it has a richer job than survival. Interpretation emerges. Emotion slips in without asking permission. You are no longer deciphering the art. You are encountering yourself.
Slow looking becomes a decision to let meaning unfold at its own pace.
It is a tiny rebellion against the cult of efficiency. Instead of demanding results from a painting — explain yourself, be profound, hurry up — we allow the experience to be unmeasurable. Sometimes revelation arrives. Sometimes quiet does. Both are victories over the museum sprint that ends with a gift shop purchase and no recollection of the gallery that preceded it.
This week, I sat with a painting of moonlit fields and distant wind. Nothing moved, yet somehow everything did. The air itself seemed to stretch across my skin, my breath eased, and the horizon widened inside me. It felt like remembering how to be a person rather than a calendar.
I answered the art’s invitation in the only way I know: by writing.
Cloud Trails, by John Rogers Cox
Hush By Jill Szoo Wilson
My dear, now hush. Unburden every care; The silent fields invite your breath to slow. The wind lifts strands of worry from your hair And strokes your cheek with touches soft and low.
O moon, shine steady, hold your silver ground; A lantern calm above the world’s unrest. Pour down a peace too deep for any sound And press a quiet knowing to the chest.
Kind wind — sweet wanderer — move as you will; Let coolness glide along these open hands. Brush thought from thought, invite my heart to still, And ferry calm across the quiet lands.
Here, nothing strives. The wide horizon sighs— At last, the soul grows spacious as the skies.
I wrote this poem after visiting Berlin in 2015, where I was fascinated by the messages people had left on the remains of the Wall. This piece was inspired by one of those messages.
Every day he comes and goes Like a beggar on the street, With no way to turn But the direction from which he came.
If the streets were carpeted— Soft to the touch— The tread of his soles would Scratch holes through the path He has Worn.
Worn out, the man with the Briefcase breathes heavily Under the sun and Under the moon, Inhaling and Exhaling as he travels, Blind as he goes— Not because he has no head, But because he feels no pain Or joy. He is numb.
Numb since the day she Walked away, And numb when he remembers The way Her hips sway— This way and that. And numb when he Thinks of her name but cannot Say it— Silent.
Silently, the bird in his soul— The bird whose name is Alive— Perches at the edge of her Cage whose name is Life, And wishes for the day She might once again Begin To Fly.
Flying in the air Above the man Is a bird whose name is Love. He flies up high and Then he dips And twirls, Like the tail of a kite giggling In the wind, Awaiting the moment when The Man Opens his coat and Sits on his bench And sleeps— Like a beggar on the street Dreaming.
Dreaming of her face— The only face that is Trapped inside the Man's soul. Love watches with a keen and Clever eye.
In one moment— A moment whose approach is slow, Whose arrival is timed By the gods, Whose watches are synchronized To the beating of Bird and human hearts— The vigilant bird Sees The coat fall open, Sees The Man sit down on his bench, Sees Him close his eyes and Seizes his Freedom.
“Freedom does not live in the sky,” He sings. “Freedom lives inside Alive.”
Love drifts down Through blue and through clouds And alights With bars between himself and Her— The one who holds his Heart Inside of her, Inside a cage. The one who Knew he would Come.
“Come to me every day,” She wanted to say. But instead, she said, “You must not waste the time Waiting by my side, When all the world Sprawls before your gaze.”
Love ruffled his feathers And looked into her eyes. “Until you are here with Me— Just you and me— I will come and sit with you Every day.”
Every day, Love came, Just as he said he would, And the earth turned slowly From summer To autumn To winter To spring.
Their stories grew, and The details they knew Poured through the bars Like drops of water Flowing From watering cans, Growing their love, Growing him and growing Her.
Her days inside, Her will to survive— Alive and Love Together traveled through, Until the day The Man stepped anew Off his carpet of same, Tattered and Worn through by His shoes— First one and then two— Onto a path where four Could move: His loafers and Her high heels of Blue.
Blue turned to joy, Joy turned to alive, And Alive for the first time Flew. The Man let her fly, As his heart said Goodbye to the Pain that was keeping Alive inside the cage, Inside his Soul.
Souls in the air, Free with Togetherness, No longer bound But soaring high, Strengthened by The time in the cage And by flying Side By Side.
Necessary Whispers 