THE BRAVE NEW LAND

The Collector Crazy… I am really feeling the time warp these days… I can’t believe it took me 6 years to get back to me, to my roots, to the ‘reason’ I now find myself in the Middle East. Yes, it is all connected. You see, when I was young, I realized that I was meant to explore the inner-space that rides the waves caused by physical space. It’s a kind of spiritual plain of existence that most just shrug-off as metaphysics or some such nonsense.  Haw… even I do it sometimes; you know, when reality just cakes up around the edges of your vision to the point that you just give in to the momentum of it all…? Crazy… Wow… I am in an art exhibition. I have never pushed the whole art front too much, always finding other ways to make a living; hence my endeavors with woodworking, writing, marcom & web design, and other assorted handyman-type sidetracks... To be honest with myself, I always wanted to move to New York, live in a loft, and paint while high on whatever drug sui...

Going back a ways, all the way back to my hacksaw wielding confrontation in the driveway, I learned a thing or two about the possibility of spending the night in jail… It had been brewing for years, it seems, when I finally had had enough of it. Remember one of the last blog-posts I wrote, the one where I took off my kippah? Well, Hashem sent me another message (loud and clear) to put it back on. It happened, realizing after the fact, since I had been behaving like a baboon, all knuckle dragging and swanking around…  Was I really behaving like a baboon…? oy. I slapped my kippah back on my head the next day, fortunately after waking up in my own bed and not the local Israeli stockade for juvenile baboons in disguise. The other guy said that I tried to cut him with a sharp metal tool of some sort; well, I did have a hacksaw in my hand when he so eloquently barreled down the driveway at me. I even raised it in the air as my arms went up in a failed attempt to get him to slow down ...

'Outside' DTNoll  2-13 דורנול Like ants we are building, always distracted and moving Our mission is plain, but the world's soul yearns We listen and hear, and then we forget We build over our ruin, and we plot our own lives Life continues to wait, patiently smiling Waiting on us, to live once we've rested We're so very tired, our exertions self-evident Reaching for stars, we miss all the sparks We scuffle our feet, to cover our tracks Pretending to not notice, that we are asleep We sleep and we sleep, while the soul of the world waits She patiently waits, to be pushed on the swing

"Secret" Pastel on Paper; March 2013 D.T. Noll – דורונול The end of six, the queen escorts sunshine Gliding above waters, far above all We wait in wonder, with a bit of terror For the light to enter, the light of the world Deep in its soul, the planet is breathing Whispering secrets to us and beyond The noise has stopped… subtly piercing The eyes of the world have mystically closed With tender embrace, we smile with our lover With a hug and a shrug, we know what became Our world is alight, for the first time in six A smiling white light, as it glints from our soul

"Split" Pastel on Paper; January 2013 D.T. Noll - דורונול The sea has split—the waters below forming around the groove that was etched during the formation, spiraling The sea has split—told and retold for thousands of years, and embedding itself within our genetic memory The sea has split—becoming its own essence, as it teaches the relationship that we once ran from, screaming, in the garden The sea has split—sealing over muffled terror tinkling to the surface and popping, elegantly. The sea has split—as we ready ourselves for the bargain that was struck to emerge, and to live The sea has split—with a freedom that was forged from faith, and now glows indelibly The sea has split—and all of Creation has stopped to look… and to wonder

I decided that my 50 th year on the planet in this particular incarnation of mine is going to be the best year ever. Number 49 seemed to be a really bad one, as bad years go for me, so I am going to get back up and do it higher than ever. The first thing I did was to shave off my white beard, leaving a ridiculous looking mustache (yeah, I'm smiling right now). Now maybe I am going to take after one of my childhood heroes, the Danish vagabond Eiler Larsen, or more commonly known as the Laguna Beach Greeter. He was always waving and smiling at people, even people he didn't even know! I heard a tale recently about how Yochanan ben Zakai, the leader of the Jewish people during and after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, would also go out of his way to say hello to passersby, even before they could say hello to him. What an amazing thing to do! Speaking of the dastardly number 49… that is also the level that the Jewish people sunk to in Egypt, before t...

Palestinians Firing Missiles out of Their Population Centers It’s in the air. That is the only explanation that I can find for the insanity that keeps knocking at my door. Maybe I’m just getting tired… I don’t know. The missiles just keep on raining, some getting by the Iron Domes, closer and closer to m y particular claim-stake in the Promised Land, causing stress and unnecessary mayhem. Now a bus in Tel Aviv has been bombed too… The stress level just keeps going up. I'm starting to think more seriously about where my loved ones are. I'm worried about walking back and forth from work. It's even starting to feel a lot like it did when I lived in LA during the Rodney King riots. All we need now is a 6.0 earth quake to send me looking for another reality to inhabit… Just the other day, after being verbally assaulted by an unhinged American woman, (it seems that Israelis seem better suited to this sort of stress factor) I was forced to blow off some steam by ha...