The painters who paint by moonlight
belong to a secret group of the living
and the dead. Burchfield sees Ryder
at a canvas in the almost dark.
He weeps to see his hero
In the shadows, at work on
a depiction of a purified night tree.
It is terribly lonely under the light
of the moon. When the living
painters see one of their dead
at work, it inspires but it hurts
them, too. When one of the dead
sees another dead artist at work,
there are almost always tears.