Accompanying Poetry by Kirsten Hirst

An original sonnet written alongside the artwork.

I Love, Therefore I Am!

Here hangs a portrait of my eager heart,
The love of life, I seek like shooting stars,
The pain of life, that casts me into art,
Those light-starved nights, that pump my blood too far.

And ask of me a warmth I burn to give,
Then steal from me forgiveness for their sin.
The hungry ones I bait and beg to live,
Who run me past all that I have within.

They say I feel because I do not think,
Then blame my thoughts for all I feel too deep.
In frantic hope, my heart can’t break to shrink,
To let me bleed, enough that I may sleep.

So here I hang, a lion-eaten lamb,
Still every thought: “I love, therefore I am!”