Welcome Post: Where the Water Blurs

By R. Burns

Welcome. I’m glad you found your way here.

Between the Waterlilies is a project born from the wreckage of a broken heart and the soft, blurred lines of Impressionist art. When my world fell apart, I found that traditional sentences were too straight, too tidy. They didn't capture the way grief feels—like a smudge of oil paint on a canvas, or a reflection in moving water.

Why I Write This Way

Inspired by the "contrapuntal" style of verse, the poems you find here are meant to be read in three distinct voices:

• The Left: The words we whisper to ourselves in the dark.
• The Right: The cold reality of the world moving on without us.
• The Center: The truth that emerges when you read both sides together.

The Landscape of Loss

I’ve paired these poems with the works of Claude Monet. His work was never about the thing itself; it was about the impression the thing left behind. Grief is the same. We aren't just mourning a person; we are mourning the light they left on the walls of our lives.

Thank you for being here. I hope that in these "Shades," you find a reflection of your own heart, and perhaps, a way to breathe through the haze.

— R. Burns