A Sequential Meditation, Concerning Two Images, With Variations
by Steven McCabe
We saw the
Haunted expression
On her thin, young face,
Digging out books
Half-buried in the rubble
Of her neighbourhood.
Who did she lose?
We saw
News flashes from Ferguson,
Reviving memories
Of roots & branches in
Martin Luther King’s
Cascading & thunderous
Vision of Love.
We discover books as
Symbolic:
Meaningful as Old Ideas & New Ideas,
Meaningful in texture and weight,
Fluttering like birds, singing or calling
Your name, her name.
We listened
To the bulletins from Palestine,
Remembering Martin Luther King’s
Historical analysis/ lack of paralysis,
A prophetic
Vision of Peace.
Pages lay motionless in the sun-drenched wind,
Their script fading to a whisper.
Heat and humidity envelop Little Dixie,
Chains click and rattle like ghosts,
An officer of the law/ empties his weapon/ into an unarmed man,
What has been done cannot be undone.
Plantation windows shutter shut,
She trembles, avoiding shards of glass.
The road is steep, leading to the fields,
Flowing with vanished olive groves.
She wears a paper-thin dress against danger from the sky.
“The arc of the moral universe is long
But it bends towards justice.”
The future rumbles
Like distant thunder,
Reverberating
Within
A Vision of Justice.
She cups her hands,
Alabaster stars radiate,
In the cauldron,
Of an obsidian void.
*
The photograph of the Palestinian girl climbing over the rubble collecting her books was uncredited. The photographer of Martin Luther King is unknown to me. Upon discovery I will post the information. I do not own the rights to the original images. I have created new works for purposes of juxtaposition and commentary under fair use provisions.
*
Peace, peace, peace.
Peace to you also maskednative.
I came back after my first visit, Steven, knowing you sometimes work/edit over time. I’m often rewarded when I do as I can witness your process. With everything in the news I feel life is full of this ‘witnessing’
So overwhelming…all that keeps happening…the progression of it. I am feeling I am being asked to grow … fuller …. expanding beyond what seems is my capacity trusting it’s possible … continuing to bring my own dark to the light … an in out in out dance of nerves, witness to unimaginable trauma, grief and suffering, taut with a recognition of possible strength ever yielding to softness.
Can I say this is a beautiful post, Steven? Yes…I can
Thank you Jana. Yes I work and rework these things (in ‘real time’ online) to the point of where I can leave it. I really appreciate and enjoy that you notice this. It is quite time consuming.
I am in harmony with your observations over ‘all that keeps happening.’ I felt by touching or tapping into MLK’s prophetic *wisdom spirit* (or however we call it) one might make some sense of it all. Also he had such a righteous fury rooted in compassion which inspires and gives hope.
Thank you for these thoughts.
“…he had such a righteous fury rooted in compassion”
Yes, he expresses this well … it’s inspiring. I balance MLK’s response to that of Thich Nhat Hahn’s … softer but just as powerful footprint
I’ll look into this, thank you Jana.
[…] August 22, 2014 […]
Thank you for reblogging.
I am in awe and almost speechless with how you create beauty from horror. And yet the beauty doesn’t coat the horror with sweetness, rather it transforms it with hope. There are layers upon layers here, in your exquisite words and in your poetic images. I am touched and inspired…
John thank you so very much. I worked many long hours on these images and the poem which I posted far too early (begone spontaneous impulse!) and reworked online over and over. The subject matter in the images: MLK, and a child, do give one a basis for hope. One needs hope to continue, even from a distance, to contemplate what is going on. I am very happy that you find the hope in this and deeply appreciate your kind words.
Yes, you hold up hope is all these horrors. “A Sequential Meditation…” , so much beauty in those words.
Peace.
Thank you Karen. I just saw this comment. and Peace to you also. Hope in the human-ity of it all.