I and Thou. a contemplation and creative writing challenge

this piece was written as a writing challenge, which Shapeshifter Anna and I both experimented with. The idea? Choose a picture of any person , from the internet, and write a descriptive passage.....

can you guess who it is? picture link at foot of page to show you....


I and Thou

what do you notice first, do you see she is black? brown skin, bronzed tones, ancient iconista on byzantine copper weathered green?
is your eye drawn to the scars on her right cheek, in curiosity, compassion - two vertical line with a short horizontal stroke between?
is it a random slash, wound or injury to the lady? has her painting been damaged, battered by time and climate and adversity?
do you see her as an image, she is as she is, or look through two millennia of tales of grace, sorrow, strength, prayer and pity?
she gazes directly from the picture, she looks out from her own story into yours, her eyes are calm, sad, small almond eyes
in a long, slender face, small mouth, neat and slightly mournful, but gentle, eyebrows, curved, soft, dimple in her chin
and, defined, slightly rounded at its tip, accentuated in the fall of the light; the nose is long, both strong and delicate, thin
the light falls on her nose and right cheek; her right hand to her breast, curved, slightly stiff. she holds the child in her left arm
her neck looks short: do you notice that, or find you're wondering whether she the woman, or her painting, came to harm?
the scar perhaps looks like a letter H, I think of Holy, Human, Hope, Hebrew, Healing...... the halo, like a symbol of infinity
encircles her head, and that of the child, connecting them in union, and telling us the familiar story of their divinity
her robes are dark in colour, decorated with fleur, de lys, and trimmed with softer orange gold, her hair covered by the hood
her eyes are sad, wise, still, full of memories and future vision, do you see an ordinary woman or the Mother of all that's True and Good?

(eva day)

here is the link for the picture





see also separate note in comments section