The Black Menorah

About the Book

The Black Menorah first came to my imagination in 2004. At first I drew it in my notebooks and painted it on my clothes. In 2010 I created the mosaic. In 2014 I refurbished the mosaic and grouted it with glitter grout. That’s also when the story-poem came to me. I wrote the poem in three days—those three nights I had nightmares. I was visited by a very angry and ugly demon. I think of the black menorah as a symbol of my faith, more than the cross or Star of David. What is the black menorah? It is a shadow of what’s to come. What does the black menorah mean? It stands as a testament that good will always prevail over evil, that light will always conquer darkness, and the next right decision will always be better than the next wrong decision. Simply put—don’t give up.

About the Author

About the author When Brian was sixteen years old a friend of his helped him get a full time job was hod-carrying for bricklayers. It was the summer of 1992. He stayed in that occupation until he graduated high school and joined the Marine Corps. In 1997, Brian suffered a career ending injury and was honorably discharged. He moved back to Louisville 1998 and attended a three year apprenticeship in Masonry; graduating in 2001 with a Certificate from the Kentucky Department of Labor. He worked in the Construction Industry until the economic crash of 2008. In 2009, while still unemployed, he would begin to mosaic like he used to lay stone. He calls his brand: Masonry Mosaics. But then; something strange and unusual happened to him in the summer of 2009. Brian heard an invisible voice telling him to “Slap those stones, and tell them to wake up!” So he did.