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    Pat Hearn
by Charlie Finch		  
     
 
Pat Hearn
by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
1987
 
You showed us so much grace
when you taught us how to die --
in your cancer ravaged face
only beauty met the eye.
I saw you just a month ago
drawing pictures on the wall
of honey laden bumblebees
above a waterfall --
You embroidered Colin's gallery
at its summer bee-in
and showed that every second
is a place we can be free in:
Your spirit was transfigured
as your body turned to ghost
with a smile and a hug
you became our heavenly host.
God surrounded you with angels
named Patterson and Daniel,
your husband was a tough
yet soft and steady handle.
A billion dollars at Sotheby's
couldn't buy the greatest art
of living which you gave us;
what sorrow 'tis to part
for a hoped-for other shore
where I hope we'll meet again --
in matters of the heart,
Pat,
you were, and are, a perfect ten.


Pat Hearn, who opened her first gallery in the East Village in 1983 and has had a gallery on West 22nd Street in Chelsea since 1995, died of liver cancer on Aug. 18, 2000, at her vacation home in Provincetown, Mass. She was 45 years old.


CHARLIE FINCH is coauthor of Most Art Sucks.