Angelo had never ever understood
Jake's fascination with news
Angelo's was a world of pigment and shape
Intuitively his dreams' language conveyed concepts
Not in words
But in blocks and lines and shades
And gradations of lights and rainbows
Mrs. Tenley his writing teacher would say
Angelo your compositions are always so visual
You take after your brethren of the canvas
Yet you might talk here
To your friend Jake our journalist
Who can focus his thoughts even when
He only knows topically about a subject
That which his questions have yielded
In answers posed to experts in the field
It was an observation Angelo knew
To be only half true
For he had been to the museum exhibit with Jake
His best friend since Freshman year
And knew by looking at his compatriot's eyes
That something had touched him
He was more than merely reporting the news
Angelo said to Mrs. Tenley
Perhaps you would be pleasantly surprised
At Jake's depth about these paintings
As he walked through the exhibit
It had been as if Jake had been posing for a master to study to portray
Jake had been studying the master's subjects'
Their eyes their hands their expressions the master's brush strokes
As intensly as the painter must have done himself
In sizing up his subjects
You should have seen Jake's face Angelo said
With his ears almost curved and curious
Almost like a dog straining
To not just hear but to discern
Angelo's eyes were as blue as the waters of Puget Sound
On a crisp clean cool August afternoon
Not a cloud in the sky
Not a one
The storms of concentration congregated
Deep in the furrows of his brow
Deep in the chasms at the top of his nose
Between his eyes
Where glasses might rest
And Angelo's focus was riveted
As if through a prism of understanding
Angelo said to Mrs. Tenley
Yes I do confess
I have never ever understood
Jake's fascination with news
Not that I don't admire him no
He is my friend
And he is very good at what he does
But mine
Madame Professor
Thank goodness
And I am not embarrassed to say
Mine is a world of pigment and shape
And the drama the dialogue the argument the resolution
Of the visual
Frozen in all its passion on canvas
I intuitively imagine such battlefields and armistices
In my sleep
But that day
That day in the museum
I also saw battlefields and armistices
And the decades of recriminations and ramifications afterward
I saw them in Jake's face
You would be surprised to know
Pleasantly surprised
Mrs. Tenley said
No Angelo what I am pleasantly surprised about
Is the journalism
You just produced
My apprentice painter
Understanding the essence of reporting
About Jake your best friend
For Sketches
By Denis J. Kelly
February 27, 2013
