[image] [word] [being]
Hi, I’m Laura. This is a space for my art and poetry as well as photography. I look for the beauty of life in this world of suffering and chaos.
Walk for Peace, Digital painting, 2026, Laura Heilman
It was late November when I saw a video of the monks walking through Louisiana. Like many others, I burst into tears just from seeing them walking on the road. I didn’t know anything about what they were doing, but my heart did.
I followed them in spirit. I listened. I began to practice.
My heart opened and now I walk with them everyday.
To Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara I say, I will not leave you. We are as family.
There are places we can never go again,
Sounds that are lost to the wind.
I shed my skin and leave behind another version of me,
Someone who once knew how a horse smells on a summer day,
just before the rain.
Vulture Maiden, original mixed media digital painting, Laura Heilman
Terror is a dark thing that lies in wait,
Pressed down tight under the velocity of hope.
I sing, I sing, I sing.
January sunshine rolls through
the clouds like an old god,
so many details lost but still longed for.
My hand presses against my chest
Beneath the squeezing crush of my throat
Above the beating rush of my heart.
Acorns underfoot,
Branches lacing through the winter sky,
I am an oak tree in this meadow…
Sacred
Impermanent
For a second, but forever.
Laura Heilman 