booksartyoume

'Jesus Wrapped' (trg, 10/13/03)

Jesus wrapped too tight will burst all over the place,
wrapped too loose, you'll find him dripping where you'd rather it not.
Plastic wrap works best if tightly folded and welded at the ends.
Tin foil even if wrapped correctly if pressed down will leave pieces,
if not careful you'll find metal mixed going down your throat.
Eat me here takes on a sordid import,
yet if we choose not to eat him we then have no life within.
The plastic may be licked completely clean.
The foil will likely have unseen chocolate left;
worse you could cut your tongue on the unfolded container.
One has aptly said, I like my chocolate Jesus...
on every Sunday I bow down at the altar of the candy store.
I know, most may not like a chocolate Jesus, fine.
A wise profane reposed friend of mine used to say
'You just don't get it, God got all of the earth and such started
and then went off to shop at the malls;
when he's done I'll guess we'll all be done.'
Sometimes I like my religion in greenbacks,
sometimes in lace or other garb,
always in subtle hues of blues, greens and reds
with a hint of amorous aromas,
sometimes in philosophy,
sometimes in skepticism,
sometimes in ethereal speculation,
sometimes under golden domes,
sometimes in the earth,
but most of all
I like it to be in whatever I want it to be.
The atheist and theist, fundamentalist believer and loud non-believer,
both are the same:
Jesus or candy in the package, doesn't matter,
just as long as I get what I want.
Maybe heaven will be everyone getting to go shopping with God
at the endless eternal malls in between streets of pure gold.
Or, maybe I'll reach into the candy dish
and pick out a different piece to eat.

here are some of my words reflecting upon Tom Waits song, 'Chocolate Jesus' and some from a reposed Scott Artist friend of mine, Bill.

...

There is not much presently in the Stark County, Canton-Massillon, Ohio area. Via neoprogressivearts.org there was a place for the local Artist who didn't believe in pretending that success is measured by painting or being bought by those with the most available cash to buy your work. I am working, talking, pushing actually, for the person that once headed this local group to begin afresh. There are other places locally, however they are well established and do not invite the younger or unrecognized. At neoprogressivearts both the established as well as the neophite were welcomed as well as heard and or shown. Thankfully I have been consistently invited to Read with local professors, the professionals, though I have always loved being a bookseller, independent, and now am a gm of a local movie rental store. It has seemed that I have never gone too long without meeting a new friend, common old souls to walk with in these things. This is the primary way that my own Art has never seemed to die. Again, I am grateful. I do love the interaction with people of the extremes and near paths. Both of these areas of business have allowed me over the years to have this. Somehow I have always been able to express myself freely both in general as well as in the business settings that I've found myself. This is a gift of some sort of which I am most grateful. Art, I believe, in all Art's variances is the voice of voiceless, the heart and soul of world. Without this we are less than machanistic non-beings. Of course the truth is that we, all beings and things, are never truly non-being. I deplore sycriticim, the elimination of the person's personal beauty. Yet there is no true beauty alone. It is said that one is not ever living for another, yet at the same time never able to live alone. This is the Art of living. I hope that we can again do some new things locally. We each can say, 'I am.'
Thank you for your indulgence as well as for your own beauty of person. Continue. timothy