More about this piece. Once I stood with two pals at the Western Wall and one of them had a piece of barbed wire he carried in his pocket that he picked up off the ground at Auschwitz, for a purpose that clarified to him only at that moment. He put the piece of barbed wire into the Wall like a Kvittel, a message. We’re alive we’re here we haven’t lost everything, we’ve lost a lot but not everything.
I was then thinking about the famous rabbi of Kotsk who taught that the I is a thief, snatching away the partial mistaking it for the Whole.
That’s the origin of this piece, that and the sense of dread that I feel like a cloak some mornings, concealing the great shining of the inner worlds. Thank goodness for others who lift, amen.
About that piece of barbed wire, I asked my teacher: Can everything be lifted to/toward holy? I was taught that almost everything can be lifted to holiness, not everything (that’s not the point), what’s the point: What cannot be lifted was a much smaller category than I thought. I was taught. I was taught. I was inspired by a thought.
In the category of What corrupts What purifies I used to think Anything could be lifted Almost everything I now think Everything lifted Can be defiled Almost everything Now I look and I think OMG And my eyes pop out Like a squeezie toy And the I In this piece Is confused It does not feel Durable It feels like An It And maybe the I itself As it dissipates What once was a link Might now be a drag Hello Kotzker You told me The I is a thief It snatches the partial Mistakes it for the Whole Only Everything is everything Thus said Marvin Gaye Standing in front of me In the check out line Schnucks Buying a Salami Amen j/sg