Paintings – Page 2 – Al's Painting and Poetry

Civility Brings Opportunities

This painting of a young Kenyan woman was sold to raise funds for a charity assisting people in Kenya, Bolivia, and Nepal. The lock on the window is a symbol of the potential of each individual that can be unlocked if given the opportunity. But such personal opportunities require a stable and civil society, a commodity that seems to becoming rarer as time passes. An individual’s need for stability and freedom from violence is true whether one lives in Kenya or in Kansas. The poem below was written after the Watts riots in 1965. Unfortunately, it seemed just as appropriate for the Los Angeles riots in 1992 and also for the current disturbances elsewhere in this world.

Watts Riots
By Al Vester

A land of great promise rocks to and fro
As hate and dissension hold daily convention
In every back alley and ghetto hole
Where hollow cries of freedom and life
Commence each round of hatred and strife
They claim injustice has raised their ire
The real desire is murder and fire
Never while they shout, “Burn baby, burn!”
Will they every come to know or possibly learn
The dignity is not an opinion to turn
But the product of goals that are honorably earned.

Violence vs. Civility

Violence seems to have become one of the standard responses for expressing anger or frustration by many people. Violence floods the daily news stories. Continue reading “Civility Brings Opportunities”

Facing Obstacles

In August of 2012 there were 62 fires burning in seven western states of United States. Smoke was filling the atmosphere both day and night giving the moon an unusual haunted appearance. This painting was an attempted to capture the image of the full moon in the smoke-filled sky. Although this smoke was experienced by everyone living in the western states, the reactions by individuals ran the entire gambit from fear and anger to wonder and amazement at the spectacular red sunsets and the smoke-wreathed moon.

OBSTACLES
By Al Vester

Brooks wouldn’t bubble
If it weren’t for the rocks.
Bells wouldn’t ring
If it weren’t for the knocks.
No day has ever dawned
Without first the night.
No victor is ever crowned
Without first the fight.
There is weight in every load
And rocks in every road.
Life is full of struggles
Everywhere we go,
But if we set to work,
The blessings soon will flow.

While off the coast of Vietnam, our crew coped with many discomforts, not the least of which was the extreme heat within our own submarine. Continue reading “Facing Obstacles”

How long should a parent worry about their adult child?

Most jobs require some prior training or experience, but the job of being a parent consists almost entirely of on-the-job training, and it continues for years. Then, about the time we have developed the parenting skills that we had hoped for earlier in life, we become unemployed. Our children grow up and start their own families. This poem tires to express a parent’s concern as a young one leaves the nest.

THE FLEDGLING’S FLIGHT
Al Vester
The fledgling fluttered, faltered, flapping fiercely in the air
While parent doves feared their love would easily be snared.
The fledgling feels the freedom of being on her own.
The father fears the foes of fledglings flying all alone:
The calculating cat crouching under camouflage of leaves,
The hovering hawk hunting high above the tangle of the trees,
The power line with channeled lightning singing in its core,
The hungry hunter heavy with his weaponry of war.
All these threats to wing and feather known to silence songs so fair,
All unknown by fledgling flying now in blissful unawares.

The tiny, tired, feathered father watches taut with tender care,
Knowing that his fledgling’s freedom trembles in the tepid air.
For the hope of growing children is the time when they will part.
Yet the fee for fledgling’s freedom is a parent’s broken heart.
Gone the time of sheltered nesting in the gentle summer breeze.
Now the time of bitter lessons as the leaves begin to freeze,
Teaching her that life takes scratching, digging in the weeds.
There the tedious toils train her in the filling of her needs.
Meals no longer stuff themselves down her open beak
And life is not considerate of the timid, slow, or weak.

Departing home

Throughout childhood, a child’s parents are preparing him or her for the time when they will be ready to stand on their own as adults. Continue reading “How long should a parent worry about their adult child?”

Are Women truly equal to men?

A friend once asked for a portrait to be made from a small photo taken forty-four years earlier. It was a photo of his wife when he first met her. Years later this was how he still thought of her on her 62nd birthday, the most beautiful woman he had ever met.

So often in life women are busy with a multitude of tasks that keep families fed, clothed, and functioning. Many have very responsible positions in society, but most have the continuous responsibilities involved in raising families. Without the influence of women in our societies, families would fall apart and cease to exist. The following poem is in honor of these sweet heroes of a strong society.

Gentle Gifts
By Al Vester
I dreamt I saw a shining creek
Which she did cross on dainty feet
Quickly hopping from rock to rock,
Never daring to pause or stop
To see the bobbing elfin fleet
Of golden leaves beside the peat.
The dream’s too true, I’m sad to say,
For she does hop from day to day,
Failing still to pause or stop
To see what fleeing time has brought,
Those gentle gifts so bright and gay,
The precious thoughts that come her way.

Womanhood

More than a year ago, a convocation was held in the Vatican about the importance of families and marriage. One of the quotes that was read during this convocation is as follows: Continue reading “Are Women truly equal to men?”

Extremists are not truly religious

Locate in the southern deserts of Utah are fantastic shapes carved in sandstone by wind, rain, and gravity. They consist of billions grains of sand cemented together in glowing shades of iron oxide. Their beauty teach us of the power of unity in a world trying to tear societies and families apart.

Brotherhood – By Al Vester

Each soul like a grain of sand
A fragment of a boundless land
Distinct, unique is every one
An each is God’s own precious son.
As each grain is bound by those above
So we are bound by those we love
For we are bathed in love that springs
From other souls by whom we are ringed

Extremism is now the forefront of many commentaries today and is often connected with one religion or another. But the extremist is not truly a religious person. Continue reading “Extremists are not truly religious”