The Clear Water

The Clear Water as presented by Scott Grimando with a background of swirling blue, suggestive of a night sky or water. The text of the poem follows below.

She Remembers Fishing
With My Father…
On The Lake
Where My Parents Met

She Said When She
Looked Over the Side
She Could See
All the Way to the Bottom

It Was So Clear…
Her Memory and the Water
That She Could See
Turtles Swimming There

At the Bottom of the Lake…
In the Deep Recesses
Of Her Mind…
Where My Father Still Lives

In That Place
She is a Child Again
And He the Big Brother
She Needed to Fill That Space

There She Might Find
He’s Eternally Young, Forever Handsome
A Pillar of Strength
Suspended in the Amber of Her Mind

We Often Take for Granted
The Clear Water…
And the Perfect Moments
Until The Time Is Past Us

At the Very Least
Our Memory is Slanted
And Love becomes among
The Least of Things

But then We’re Reminded
That Life is Short and Best When Love is Granted
And no One’s Ever Really Gone
Until Their Memory is Long Abandoned


Scott Grimando is an American illustrator. In his teenage years he studied classical painting under Harold Stevenson, one of the few protégées of Norman Rockwell. Later studying under the aviation artist Attila Hejja, Grimando went on to work with most of the major Science Fiction and Fantasy publishers.

Grimando is perhaps best known for his work on author Mike Shepherd’s Kris Longknife series including over 30 covers for his Jump Universe.

As a fine artist, Grimando was widely known for his Victorian Fairy paintings. His later work explores symbolic, surrealist, and mythological themes.

His first book, The Art of the Mythical Woman, Lucid Dreams, is an illustrated retrospective of his career.

Grimando has been featured in The World of Faery, Heavy Metal, Faerie Magazine, and numerous collections of contemporary fantasy art including Spectrum, Expose, Infected By Art, and Illuxcon.