Carletta Carrington Wilson: this light called darkness, for Jacob Lawrence
this light called darkness
by carletta carrington wilson
Portrait of Jacob Lawrence, 1941,
by Carl Van Vechten
This poem & the photo of Jacob Lawrence are in Raven’s anthology: This Light Called Darkness, on page 137-138
painter
i remember the impact
visions swarming in
traveling the torrid narrowness
turning thin/thin/thinner
til translucent
breath beckoned
spills its mighty weight
and the throng billowing
blows against seams of light
northern/ geometric/ and hungry
converging
so-much rural
so-very urban
laboring on
shadows climb
spit/ sound/ and pulse
the intimate metropolis
seasoning the struggle
glowing the color canvas
with a passion red axial and bone
rigidly brushed between four edges
stark faces bold minds
thirsty strands of stars calling
thistledown thirty-down
comin’ down the road and round
painted lady strut your stuff
cryin’ baby that’s enuf
got my gal and headed for town now
bluuueeessssss
turning purple turning thicker and black
our certain kind our beauty not complete
without your hands migrating into centuries
receding and advancing against the dark/ light
georgia night sky with beauty so black/so blue/so raw
with contrast
windowmaker seer
talismans in torrents
knock the canvas
inverted keloids brush against bone
in rooms other than our own
kinky iridescence
disembarking there dismembering there
flesh and flesh landing miles on onto streets
throwing texture/ shadow/ color
light rises rises to witness
our implements
our long haul labor’s bloom
blooming upon
the
dark/ still canvas
onto which
lives
thickly brushed
have been left
naked to dry
against time
Carletta Carrington Wilson is a literary, mixed-media, and installation artist. She explores the "text" of textiles. Her work appears in This Light Called Darkness, Take a Stand: Art Against Hate, The African American Review, Cimarron Review, Obsidian III, and Cascadian Zen: Bioregional Writings on Cascade Here and Now. Her works have been exhibited at Wa Na Wari, CoCA, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and the Northwest African American Museum.
As artist-in-residence at the Dr. James and Janie Washington Studio and Cultural Center in the Central District, Wilson created a series of site-specific installations whose process is documented in Poem of Stone & Bone. Journal entries chart her journey and visceral responses to objects found on the grounds, in the house and studio of the artist. Poem of Stone and Bone engages objects, land and literature to create a nuanced perspective on the life and work of James W. Washington Jr.