You Are Not Invisible

Poet, spoken-word artist, and songwriter Marshall Davis Jones wrote and performed this poem for Omega staff while he was an artist-in-residence at Omega.

You are not invisible
even the days
it seems no one is watching

I'd like to believe there are angels that take notice
waiting for the next time we close our eyes
leaving loose feathers
to remind us to catch the blessing
they have tucked into our dreams

You are not invisible

Even though we don't
always see the work
or aren't aware why
we participants wake up
and everything is just as it should be

We eat as we should eat
programs been programmed

And clean be the garden
the roads and the sheets

Cuts get Band Aids
and luggage sees point A to point B
then back to point A
when it's time to leave

Receptionists are receptive
services where the guest live
are perfectly executed
and nothing less is accepted

Massages be leaving breathless
the clients inclined to get them
Tarot cards they be flipping
and readings for inner sanctum

The sanctuary is quiet
the flowers is always vibrant
the Café is mad expensive
but someone's there to provide it

Need a crystal
a book or a brush?
I can go and buy it

Wanna get in the lake?
No problem, I get a kayak

Pen, pencils for notes
someone be getting those

Someone's keeping the mics
and speakers on for the shows

Someone bringing the light
up heaving from their soul

Then cleaning it overnight
repeating it for the flow

Know
That fruit of your labor
Glows

I have picked from the tree and

Found it sweet
Found it life

Found it past life
Found it next life

Found it travel

Found it I don't know
And lets not know together

Afraid because day one isn't always so sure

But we keep trying

There is nothing like the work of hands
that are working on themselves

Where every fingerprint
is from a lifeline
about life

And I don't know what lines life
has written to live you here

But I know that book
will be damn good when it's finished

I know crying

I know crying here
can feel like the tsunami rain waterfall of a hurricane

Cuz the windows to our souls are wide open

Eyes open
third, second, and first
time broken

The first year I came here a shattered spirit in cracked glass
fragile as the sand of time I felt was slipping between my grasp

But I have seen the apothecary in your smiles
and have embraced both sides of the moon
and felt the tiger balm of a warm shoulder
that wasn't afraid to touch a broken heart

And it is not because I am here
but because you were

Every time

I've come here to teach
to realize I know nothing

I am a student

With a chance to peel back
the fabric and learn the secrets
I hid from myself

That I buried in my child
That I locked in my conscious

Because I am surrounded by a host of light beings
searching for the same thing

Staff

You are not a hierarchy of assignment and order

Staff

You are more of a wand built with the spines of your sacrifice

Staff

Wisdom with its old age walks with this staff

Merlin and all his magic spins his spells with this staff

The symbol for Omega
turned upside down
is the cauldron through which permission is poured

And we are
allowed to be flawed
allowed to be lost
allowed to be human

There are answers to your breath
the silent prayer that meaning is on the other side

Someone's spirit will break free

Because today
you played your part
and told them
I love you

No words

Just actions
that happen
to crack thunder
over flapped lips

And the split made in heaven
dropped bricks

That built their road to redemption

And sent a wandering heart
to the land they've been promised

Houston has solved the problem
and now their life is a rocket

That's the ripple affect
when you empty all of your pockets

And give it all that you got

Keep giving it when it seems

No ones paying attention
No one could care the least

Cuz these are only the things
My limited eye can see

And it is enough to prove that you are not invisible

At least...
        not to me