El Jaleo

EL JALEO school outing … prep school day trip - the Isabella Gardner Museum, Boston … I round a corner inside, a sunny courtyard to my left ahead, an exquisite scalloped arch sculpted columns on each end and beyond, softly lit ... - I gasp, air sucked from my lungs in the literal sense my hand clutches my chest, knees wobbling ... noticing, someone asks if I'm okay "physically, yes ... thank you" (when my breath finally returns) blown as a mind can be, I'm transfixed minutes pass, then hours ... tranquil water, am I - no ripples, no vacillations no concern of what’s taking place around me an entire multi-floor museum - exceeding artistic genius on every wall yet the bulk of my day is spent ... right there entirely and utterly spellbound … light, dance, music romance, color, shadow, laughter - every motion and emotion, churning I can hear the guitars, the clack of her shoes feel the heat of el club nocturna, pressing mind spinning with the feigned haze of absinthe the waft of cigar smoke and perfume words stir deep inside me wound in phrases I can not speak phrases and fires unknown and unspoken … and unquenched … I am but a child - in the presence of The Divine frozen to my marrow by the bloom of resplendent brilliance my soul, a chaotic milieu of terrifying beauty and all I can manage, all I can do ... is breathe. ~ 2nd Place ~ in the "Creativity In Visual Arts" Poetry Contest, Line Gauthier, Judge & Sponsor. * This happened when I was fourteen ... art became very real to me that day, as did the phrase "divine Inspiration", thanks to the painting above, by John Singer Sargent. If you've ever seen it in person, (or SO many others!), you know whereof I speak. (Above image is slightly compressed). *