Gail Ghai
A Place Where Color Lives
Profusely is how I thanked you for your painting. It hangs in a place where there is such sweet light, a southern
gold exposure. A place where my coral hibiscus taps on beveled glass whenever the wind wants attention. It's a place
where a pearl-skinned woman wades into water and begins to bathe with a scrub of eucalyptus,
lather of lavender, rinse of rose petals as drops of Egyptian oil perfume the air.
It's a place where colors live reflected in your palette of pigments where you've mastered more than texture,
pattern, intensity. You've formed movement like waves of water or liquid light in a place that hides the unseen,
unknown, the un-forgiving fleshy layers of lives where blood itself is a painting with its scarlet-blue tinted
travels moving between shade and shadow on its way to and from the heart.
Bio
Gail Ghai is a poet, teacher, workshop leader, and author of three chapbooks of poetry as well as an art/writing poster entitled, "Painted Words". She has served as Poet-in-Residence for the Pittsburgh Cancer Caring Center, North Allegheny School District and the International Poetry Forum. Awards include a Pushcart Prize nomination and a Henry C. Frick scholarship for creative teaching. Her work has appeared in Poet Lore, JAMA, Descant, Hektoen International Journal and Burning Wood Journal. She is moderator of the Ringling Poets in Sarasota, FL.