To Find Comfort
Sara Kohrt
January 16, 2026
Fenced In
- By Deborah Pierce
- visuals
- 2 Comments
About the Artwork
“I was out for a camera walk and thinking about how much the pandemic has limited our lives and how, despite the beautiful weather, I felt fenced in. This flower trying to poke its way through the fence captured how the time of the pandemic feels.”
I’m a family physician, and photography is what rescues me from burnout.
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2 thoughts on “Fenced In”
Thank you for this image. Nature tends to comfort me in unexpected ways.
This is a letter written by an elderly person I loved. Your photo brings it to mind.
August 2010
Today I did walk. I thought about going out to the road and down, like Jim and I used to do before he lost his sight. Instead, I went over to the garden and all around. I like walking by myself. My back is not straight, but it doesn’t hurt.
He used to keep the garden so neat. It’s nothing like it was. An odd thing– I found a single gladiolus, coming up between the post and the fence. How did it ever find its way there? Where did it come from? Nobody planted it. Such a sad little blossom, bent to grow in that tight place, part in, part out.
He is so good. He always says he likes it when I describe what I see. Maria sent me a photo of a water lily, ripples of water passing underneath, so clear. So perfect, you can’t imagine, he would just love it. I want so much to show it to him. I don’t know how to tell you.
I wish I could write a poem about that gladiolus.