Original Painting by Nipper Sorensen. Acrylic on Canvas. Measures 18” x 36” x 1” (45.72cm x 91.44cm x 2.54cm).
The painting is based on a poem I wrote about the entrance to my then boyfriend's garden, called "The Gate". The gate was part of a wooden fence so it was hard to see if you didn't know it was there.
The Gate
It is not just a gate
It looks like part of the tall fence
Barely noticeable as you walk by
But impossible to forget
once you know it's there
More so once you have felt it
Put your hand on its surface
To push it open
Uneven wooden corduroy on your fingertips
Rough with splintering potential and yet soft, gentle and smooth
Sanded by nature through the years
Each ridge so easy to feel
Impossible to forget
For your fingertips
Once they have felt it
The weight it takes to push it open
Open to reveal the sweetest smell
Tropical plants
unlikely in this cold paradise
Impossible to forget once
You have sensed the fragrance
Unique, familiar, safe, comforting
Home
Once fully open
there you stand
like the fingertips and sense of smell
My heart knows
Impossible to forget
once it has sensed
Like that gate and that fragrance
Contradictory
and full of God
(c) Nipper Sorensen 2013