Answer: to escape unpleasant news.
Hayden is referring here to the news regarding the civil rights movements that were coming out from Selma, and the events that were taking place in Saigon because of the Vietnam War. As both situations were tragic, Hayden felt he could find refuge in the nature of Monet's painting.
He ends the poem by saying:
"Here is the aura of that world each of us has lost. Here is the shadow of its joy."
