Newer tenants would not be aware that the passions climbed steam high in those flats. Too many years had passed. Perhaps people no longer ran after one another in the hallways after hours or grappled at the top of the stairs. Maybe no one crumpled sob-heavy in the foyer anymore, fingerprinting the glass on the double doors. The building held no records that a coat of quality paint could not conceal. It overlooked all of the activity with the same fixed indifference trees have as all other things transform. A passerby could still look up the following day and see its gorgeous concrete curves. Untouched.

Photography by Ian N'Kosi Joseph. Words by Kwesi Ako Dash. © 2009

Their aspirations bring them floating to me in slow-motion, defenseless metals as they are to my massive magnet. And every year it is the same. Alas, this is my second function, my unintended purpose; to be a canvas, to be laid out and sacrificed to their ambitiousness, their furious need to be counted deep from inside the aluminum. Blood drains down my walls in every color. Declarations they spew on me of what they are and could possibly be. Proclamations they paint on me in this perilous outside studio, where blinking lights could bring an even quicker end to our quick nighttime association; our brief exchange. We build some sort of hope together and I complete our contract with my wide, wide morning display. The rising beams will finally reach me and their names will shine with a magnificence that cannot be matched.

Photography by Ian N'Kosi Joseph. Words by Kwesi Ako Dash. © 2009

It is an assailant lunging unexpectedly from the back, attacking swiftly like a cyclone or some domestic creature driven to sudden madness as it takes hold of its host. It is a bitter caller, a strangler which must not be succumbed to; a visitor that refuses to be unaccompanied. It seizes without reason and acts on a whim.

Photography by Ian N'Kosi Joseph. Words by Kwesi Ako Dash. © 2009

Love On The Rocks

So let it be said, finally, that all footpaths have led to bliss. The days of wandering and wondering and waiting, and the silent nighttime meditations with the wind knocking on the walls, of hands clasping and unclasping under averted eyes, feeling in every present circumstance that the one true zenith has not yet been reached, have not been in vain.
















She is my strength renewed; my conscience; my keeper; the blood that floods the tunnels to my heart; the hands at my temple; the palms across my brow; the arms that hold me at the waist. My swords all fall at her feet. My body is the barrier between her and all ill.
















A century will pass and another still, then two more will stand at this place we have stood; at the highest point there is, at the axis of the universe, with all of nature bearing witness to a union of the inner essences. The surroundings will make themselves even more splendid as a testament to the highest achievement of the living. And somewhere, someone may recall, remember that we too were young, envision us here and smile.

Photography by Ian N'Kosi Joseph. Words by Kwesi Ako Dash. © 2009

A TRIPTYCH OF THE UNIVERSE

At Home Alone















Some may cry tears for me. Others may sigh. There are those that look away quickly, swiping me away as if I were hail falling into open eyes...they don't want to feel my cold. Some even stare at me accusingly. But they cannot reach me here. Here, in my solitude. Here, where only I can dwell. Here, at the center of this blazing metropolis. I am under the glow of God's watchful eye: Here, I am completely alone; at ease, if only for this brief moment; shut away from all the bedlam. I find my own peace in the place where I live.

Photography by Ian N'Kosi Joseph. Words by Kwesi Ako Dash. © 2009

My Spiritual Angel

For we are bound together by love. Love binds all the spirits in the universe. Love is the will of the divine. It is love from whom I am charged. And just like the globes surround the sun, my arms make a range of mountains around you. I build a path for you in the dark. I shadow each of your footsteps. It is love from whom I am charged. Love is the will of the divine.

Photography by Ian N'Kosi Joseph. Words by Kwesi Ako Dash. © 2009

Sculpture (God's Image)

I am whole; and all that exists of life is within me. The light that touches my face, falls over my full frame in quiet acknowledgement of this perfection. This is the ideal. This is a design without fault. Like stone that stretches a thousand miles into the deep, I am a monument molded by the Creator’s own hands. There is none more complete than me.

Photography by Ian N'Kosi Joseph. Words by Kwesi Ako Dash. © 2009