Spirit Lines

1.

Silent Entry

wednesday, february 20: 8:40pm - lenten midweek service at brown memorial ends. I zip up my midnight down coat, tie the lavender xmas gift around my neck and put on wrinkled leather gloves. the church empties, staff and singers exit doors behind pulpit in the direction of offices. churchgoers leave the sanctuary front door spilling onto washington avenue. four people including myself remain gathering our possessions to move onward. a woman and man enter the cathedral at this moment, heads covered with scarves and legs with jeans. Their high-pitched cries of pain echo in the silent space, translating off meditative walls. slowly, under bright quiet lights the pair walks down the center aisle’s red carper towards the pulpit. the tan man sits on a pew nearby, and this woman falls to her knees underneath mosaic tile portraits of angels looking down over her. Wailing, crying, screaming, yelling her inner silence leaves her heart speaking through her soul as agony and suffering. approaching the scene I inquire. I think to fall on my knees but my legs paralyze, gloves and my red-letter book toss onto mahogany table and I twist my hand in hers. my son, my son they killed him she says. they shot him! lifting her hand into mine, I rub her palm, feel the lifelines, spread the brown fingers, and raise the bitten nails imprinted with cigarette smoke to my lips to kiss. a free hand rubs her crown and cheek and energy is softly transferred back and forth. Her chin remains tucked down, ears exposed to me as the sobs grow. it’s my fault, the drugs, I let this happen she says. my hand rubs palm, a massaging transfer continues. meanwhile, a man with eyeglasses stills the forty-something women on her other side. with his mute presence, and another women standing in front of this mother praying over her, the three of us comfort, evangelize, animatedly requesting, praying, demanding blessings and halleluiahs, healing, favor, amens and why answers, maybe more than five minutes, at least fifteen pass while in this frozen moment. time disappears while we three cover the mother. her refuge from cold outside …heat increases a movement moment occurring, and a long-winded help me please exhales before her inward collapse. her physical body releases and limply crumbles as her arms pull down to her sides. this woman’s neck then stretches, straightens and the four of us break the transient silent moment. lightly I lift my eyes to see fifteen more bodies surrounding us. staff, singers and senior pastor gaze amazed. My body then trembles vibrating as the angel I was a conduit for passes through me silently, translating whispers and leaving my insides.                    

2.

Mind Maps - A Tete A Tete

Can be brief, Earl Gray Tea with cream this evening for me        because I’m saying the same thing about your abstract acrylic paintings,

                            but I’m feeling a different way, more levels of meaning,

       it’s the same vocabulary just particular details combined,       your scarlet sky-blue primal and lime violet complimentary colors, white cross stitch/hatch marks advance upward, intertwined lines and mock body parts with curves ascend the yards squared,          

   sure, yes you are in the right place, as the 36 inch by 36 inch canvases hang high in this French baguette café

                                                I notice your walk is more brisk and legs swifter,     

back alignment proper, and I know

everything good that is going to happen to you will happen.

Where I am   on my front page:

Six-months ago I walked through another mirrored door   drew another perforated line across the aerial landscape of being   something added up   calculated in the space   the math between caring and profound focus.   We both are more permissive   and arriving at the DNA of sensibility.

And your abstract geometric, Jewish, Afro-centric, Native American Asian paintings   passed through a doorway too   a relaxed place   to the land promised.   A freedom   a fear freed   through mauve and white space mastery   the bridge built   then crossed   your empowerment felt.   This painting painted itself Harvey Wilson.

Clarity is earned through the process of creating these sensual paintings, and that freedom of not knowing what will happen, and through fantastic revelations because Venus was a tiny dot transgressing the sun and it’s nearly the same size as earth, and the Queen celebrates her year of Jubilee - three scores on the throne and our year is here too. You transfer mind map energy, this commodity, because you got nothing to prove, you getting yourself free, we get it, like it, and want it.

The three-part business model:

buy then cut, stretch and transfer soul’s energy excess onto canvas. Update website, I phone hundreds of galleries, set appointments, your years of seasoning secures a show. So my Cézanne life coach, Buddhist Pratt grad guru, Brooklyn brother / sister: 

                                                start from center

                                                turn it inside out

                                                oh, and remember it

                                                doesn’t belong to us

                                                so put game in box

                                                on canvas when over

                                               

Finish your ginger ale and let’s prepare for a marvelous mix of business pleasure. 

3.

Outside Sound

5am Birds and Cars

tweet tweet,

twet, twet tweet, twit

dweet, dwet, dweet, reep rep, reap

shsh, shsn, shshsh rooom vroom,

vroommmmmmmmmm, hhhhhhooom

din din din dang daaayng dang day day din, din

ouii, fuii, diep diep, ooohag, ooohah, ouououou

bleup, bleu, pueeo, pu pah, pahd puahd, pooom

8am People and Birds

ooh yeah, ooh yeah oh yeah, yeah yeah

yah yah yah, don don odon, don odd                                                                        

who, who, whoo, who who, owhoo

no no not right now, scream, whistle over eeeaare

12pm Truck

aaaaah ah aaah, shsh shsh, shsho, ssss

hssh vroosh vroosh shrooshh

dunn, dunn dunn, dunne dun

3pm Plane and Baby

hisss hissss hiss hiss hoooo, hsss

voooov vrhououou ouuuu, ooom

way, wa, wail, waaaiiil, mama, maa

4pm Birds and Squirrels

bew brah, vah bew, bew vrew

bring thing sing ding, ding, ring

6pm Dog and Sidewalk Wheels

Rough, roogh rof, rof ruffy, ruf, baark, baar

clang click clang roll, clang, clang, clunk, click

9:00pm Car Starting

star, aar, aark awk awwwk cough cough cof

woooot woooooo  woot, wooh

hoooooooorn oooorn ooorn, orn, horn

11pm Sounds

base bass boom bomm bomb that’s what I said

honk honk honn, onnk, news time, snooore

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4.

A Wintry Sunrise

cough sniff couh cuf caf

ah shew ash sho as hoo whoo

sun rises skies rise

air purifying

curing cold cleaning cleansing

blinds face warming eyes

octopus arms flood

orange penetrates closed eyelids

spreading sunrise fire

icy sidewalks stretch

rises shut inside these eyes

which sun’s the real one

early striped sunrise

turquoise tangerine and white

planes make lines in rows

a bird lands on branch

rests small body on feathers

its asleep or hurting

tree limb of branch bends

single sparrow silhouettes

bird sings and launches

tops of trees arch backs

red-yellow early hellos

door closes car starts

head looks side to side

neighbor leans out top window

retreats closing shades

direct contact sears

when staring into sun’s eye

confusion damaged

wavy clouds stream light

fading sky matches my mood

sunrises resemble sunsets

sniff sooof huchoo bed

unhuh hmm coaw faw ooh oh

sunrise, rise sunrise

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