Most summer visitors to a beach 
walk the sand, collect shells, 
or admire sandpipers’ rush from ripples. 
But Hopper lets none of this distract him. 

The first morning, from his window, 
he sees a lone woman check weather 
from the back of her house, 
deciding whether wind is right for sailing, 
whether she should make pancakes, 
or go out for a late breakfast of bagels. 
Seeing a blue sky and lack of wind, 
she rushes to wake the family, to not waste 
the day, to eat a quick breakfast, 
pack a cooler, go to the beach. 

Hopper wastes, too, not a moment. 
With the scene fresh in his head, 
he unpacks his easel and paints. 
He happily paints the whole day. 

—After Cape Cod Morning (1950) by Edward Hopper

Lavinia Kumar’s

latest book is Spirited American Women: Early Writers, Artists, & Activists (2022), short prose biographies of nearly 90 amazing pre-Civil War women writers, poets, publishers, painters, artists, abolitionists, early suffragettes, and activists. Ms. Kumar is also the author of three poetry books, most recently No Longer Silent Women: The Silk and Iron of Women Scientists (2020), and four chapbooks, most recently Beauty, Salon. Art (Desert Willow Press, 2019).

Author’s website: https://laviniakumar.net/