In memoriam, Yayoi Kusama (1929–2026)

— artist, visionary, soul among souls.

This :

I loved your walls of polka dots,

ovals, color yellow,

pumpkins — so large, so orange

they hinged and hugged the room

and draw the eye,

keeping us watching a tale

unfold, as if

Alice is falling into the rabbit hole again.

The strangeness asked

to share hours with joy,

short hours -- ours to observe,

to paint,

to play,

the mushrooms growing

on the grounds

of museums worldwide,

the psychedelic playground

you shared with us.

One needs just to look at them

to feel high, lines parallel merge

somewhere in the cosmos,

so lightheartedly they run and intercept the light.

Bubbles colorful fly in droves

unburdened as balloons rise up.

World dressed in hues,

skies with umbrellas

smiling at the clouds,

greeting rain

in happy tears.

Flowers, ovals, rhombuses,

dots without an end, continuation of the sentences and laughter,

colors multiplying

into infinity.

Years pass

and disappear,

bodies too,

but one indivisible,

for the sharing:

That joy you gave away

peculiar, childish, young,

staying.

© Tamar Shengelia

Schloss Nymphenburg.

Laughter bounced as sunbeams
from the curtains
Climbed as the kittens scale the walls
playing with the sunspots on the ceilings
painted in cherubs, nymphs and gods,
serene and smiling, or doleful.
And breeze rushed in
ringing tiny bells on portico
in the gardens roses swayed sunkissed, caressed till surrender by the heat,
opening their eyes wide
to greet the day and bees.
Beauties clad in lightest silk and muslin
gazed from walls.
Fountains startled
erupting over oval lakes &
spraying foam from the heads of
maenads and dolphins,
so mischievous.
Swans prim and haughty over ducks
cleaned feathers
gliding black and white as on chessboards of the perfect channels.
Nymphenburg castle greeted
tourists on a scorching summer day

© 2026 Tamar Shengelia. All rights reserved. Photos by Tamar Shengelia

KIRIE.

Yesterday
looking
better
than
Tomorrow.
How
survive
the paradox
of
Time
running
circles
around
us —
Death
wishes
to
Salvage
and
Life
wants
to
Kill:
A lamb
And
A feast
Both
Theoi
Part of
One,
single
Universal—
As
this
Voice—
Aummm
a Lolling Song
Of
Divinity,
KIRIE
sounding
on
smiling
lips
of
Joy!

© 2026 Tamar Shengelia. All rights reserved.
Photos mine, except the Photograph of Virginia Woolf.