Yellow Mama E zine

THE WALKING MAN 1

 

A

 

MEDITATION

 

(upon viewing Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture, The Walking Man 1)

 

 

By Dr. Mel Waldman

  

The Walking Man,

skeletal and elongated in scarred bronze

 

bathed

and engulfed by the vastness of space

 

&

merged with the cosmic flow everlasting

 

on

a journey through a terrible silence

 

 

The Solitary Man

in bruised bronze

 

swallowed

by the nothingness surrounding him

 

a

cage of eerie emptiness & still,

 

 

The Suffering Man

moves forward

 

into

the unrevealed moment,

 

stepping

into the light or darkness or . . . something ineffable

 

 

 

Sartre’s Existential Man,

emaciated

 

&

fleshless,

 

wills

himself into a forbidding wilderness,

 

a

raw being in motion

 

stripped

of human excess

 

chiseled

& carved into naked quiddity & unalloyed truth

 

 

The Wayfarer

in motion

 

&

still,

 

forever

captured by a cosmological camera

 

unveiling

the unadorned man

 

frozen

& fluid & enduring in this

 

unfathomable moment

fueled

 

by an orphic life force

 

 

The Ordinary Man,

in search of meaning

 

silently utters,            

I AM

 

as

he walks alone,

 

embracing “the eternal movement”

 

through

space/time and swirling spheres

 

of

conscious and unconscious thoughts

 

nestled

in inner space,

 

transforming

this daily act into the metaphysical

 

&

the lost and fallen human too

 

possesses

the sacred possibility to bloom

 

&

become transcendent with one step beyond.  

 

 

The Walking Man

lifts one foot, the other still,

 

&

moves forward

 

into

the vastness of space/time

 

never

knowing if he will continue to exist or evaporate

 

 

 

      Dr. Mel Waldman is a psychologist, poet, and writer whose stories have appeared in numerous magazines including HARDBOILED DETECTIVE, ESPIONAGE, THE SAINT, PULP METAL MAGAZINE, and AUDIENCE. His poems have been widely published in magazines and books including A NEW ULSTER, CLOCKWISE CAT, CRAB FAT LITERARY MAGAZINE, ESKIMO PIE, INDIANA VOICE JOURNAL, LIQUID IMAGINATION, THE BROOKLYN LITERARY REVIEW, BRICKPLIGHT, SKIVE MAGAZINE, ODDBALL MAGAZINE, PABLO LENNIS, POETRY PACIFIC, POETICA, RED FEZ, SQUAWK BACK, SWEET ANNIE & SWEET PEA REVIEW, THE JEWISH LITERARY JOURNAL, THE JEWISH PRESS, THE JERUSALEM POST, HOTMETAL PRESS, MAD SWIRL, HAGGARD & HALLOO, ASCENT ASPIRATIONS, YELLOW MAMA, THE BITCHIN’ KITSCH,  SOUL-LIT, TWO DROPS OF INK, and NAMASTE FIJI: THE INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY.  A past winner of the literary GRADIVA AWARD in Psychoanalysis, he was nominated for a PUSHCART PRIZE in literature and is the author of 11 books.

​

      Jack Garrett was an artist, actor, writer, and musician extraordinaire. He played keyboards and guitar for several rock bands well known in the downtown NYC area during the 1970s and ‘80s and opened for the Ramones as well as for U2 with his band the Nitecaps during U2’s 1980s European tour. He leaves a treasure trove of art, music, and writing. Mr. Garrett had been put on warning at more than one job for doodling at his desk.

      He passed on September 28, 2011.