To Life! To Malca!

Of course this whole project is dedicated to Malca. Even when she was here in this earthy world (though I'm not sure she ever really touched down in her short 52 years) I used to say, "Every page I write secretly begins, 'Dear Malca....'" For Malca, writing was a matter of opening onto the page, spilling, splashing colour and taste and image, rhyming. For Malca there was no prose. Malca and I used to sip caffe latte together, writing and writing and writing. The last time we wrote together, she told me that the doctors gave her a 1% chance of surviving the cancer that was taking over her thisworld body. The synchronicity of it (and Malca saw significance in synchronicity) was that I had just read in a book of Kabbalah, that 1%, or less, of the world is the physical world, and 99+% is the spiritual, real world. The doctors gave her 1%, and we laughed and laughed. "That's just for the physical world". I don't see the world now as 1% physical and 99% spiritual. I see it as 100 this, 100 that. A 100% physical world. And hovering in and above and under and through, the 100% world of idea and concept and ideal form and spirit. Sitting at Holt Renfrew's gorgeous cafe, Malca and I chose a line at random from a book I had with me, to prompt our writing: "Spiritual reality may choose to reveal itself in physical form". The decor at Holt Renfrew's cafe was pure white, with shelves of glass vases in many shapes and bright colours. Water was served in a red glass decanter. We pulled out our pens and wrote.

Spiritual reality may choose to reveal itself in physical form.
January 30, 2005.
I look at you across the table.
This physical smile
is more luscious,
more elegant,
than ever before,
taking on short hair
with a glamour
that makes it
the most playful, radiant,
fashioned choice
instead of survival.
One percent
is for the physical world,
and we all know about the physical world.
**************************
It is spirit,
playfully deciding
to juggle strawberries,
to splash watercolours,
to fingerpaint on clear glass,
to pour cool clear water
into ruby red vases.
**************************
Physical reality
is cool clear light
poured into vases,
tall green glass,
ruby pomegranate glass,
stout olive green.
**************************
Reality is spirit,
poured into coloured glasses.
******************************
"That's extraordinary", said Malca. Her smile triumphs, still.
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What is a smile made of?