Kaleo Ching – Excavation

Artist Initiator: Kaleo Ching
Title: Excavation
Medium: Mixed Media on Canvas
Size: 11.5” x 15.5”
Price: $400

Author Responder: Elise Diriam Ching
Title: Excavation
NFS

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I am an archaeologist – not of potsherds and bones, but of artifacts of the soul – searching in this place where fire gives birth to earth.

The confused sky begins to dim. Time for day and night creatures to exchange places. 

shadow approaching –

raven alights

step-hops and stops

…right in front of me, like an old friend. This messenger-bird with obsidian eyes for reflecting my thoughts. Thick beak for cracking secrets. Head cocked like he’s listening to something I can’t hear.

Night deepens, star-beings emerging from their cave of day. Brightening, they look especially vigorous tonight in a sky tattooed with spark and ash.

Raven pecks impatiently at the earth, like there’s something down there I must discover. But, I wonder, who will be my guide through tunnels, once fire-carved, now darker than night?

Strange rumblings from below, the silent ones reminding me, an open hand gives and receives. I shrug my shoulders and surrender, offer raven something shiny for his efforts.

clack, clack –

be a lamp,

you hold the key

No need to climb or to descend. It all meets me here. The untouched field awaits. The tracks I follow are the ones I make, taking me in a loop, uncovering where it all begins and ends – in the fury and freedom of an open heart. 

 

Copyright © 2024 by Elise Dirlam Ching