Friday

"Aperture" (Johnny Levy)

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. [Psalm 27:4]

 [ONE]
 Open the aperture of my heart
 Wide, and wide,
 I will open wide,
 To be filled with light
 To bring all things into
 Penetrating focus

 Swollen with light
 Fire in my belly

Open the aperture
Of my heart, Father



To see you and only you
To see nothing unfiltered by you,
Nothing untouched by Radiance.
To see your beauty.
Epic storyteller –
Weaving tales of redemption
With the fabric of human life.

This is what the world really is:

Dazzling, shimmering
Opportunity. Possibility.
Empty containers –
Waiting for something to fill them;
Everything in a state of “almost.”
Creation itself holding its breath.

Let me see this, Father;
Open my heart’s aperture.

Let light flood in
Refining, clarifying,
Killing all shadow.

Let all non-essentials
Become a blurry background

Of a photograph
With a single object
In sharp focus,

Your face
Imprinted to the very core of me
Burned like sunlight
Against retina,
Eternal afterimage

More.

[TWO]
I will open the aperture of my heart
As wide as I can, ever wider
As You pry, as I pry, As You
Use my life as a crowbar, breaking
The seal of rust and age,
A door that would never open
By man’s hand alone, or all his
Back-wrenching power. Or gadgets.
Or serums. Or legislation.

The heart remains apart. A vault, eternally secure.
Immune to all, prowess and science, no one knows the combination.
No man unlocks it. Mankind’s mind and fingers
Thwarted. Can a man reach his fat fingers
Into a seed, pulling forth life and blossom?

Neither the heart.
Only God can transform
A heart.

I fling wide the shutters of my chest
Begging for God to lance, harpoon,
Whatever it takes
To move me. Send your knives, Father,
Your fingers of light. Create in me
A clean heart.


[THREE]
Set me free
To see, to finally see

Oiling the hinges of my neck
So that I may finally turn my gaze
To the heavens, with a creak,
A screech, a cry.

And see the sun risen
For the first time,

Through slitted eyes
Open just wide enough
To flood without scorching.
Light tangled and needling
Stretched in my eyelashes

To be flooded.
Taken away from myself.
Transformed.

To be a pitcher
Filled with light.

To be suddenly, unexpectedly,
Someone,
With something to give.

And to pour this light
Into thirsty reservoirs
That surround me

Open mouths

Gaping for life
Wheezing for light
Like fish out of water
Convulsing with
Need.

We are all longing
For a taste
Of something real.

Let my life be
A photograph of
Daddy. Proof
That we are not
Fatherless.
We are not
Orphans. Look
We belong to
Someone.

Opening aperture
After aperture
After aperture.

Unlocking Joy.
Let us smile into
The sun together
And know that we
Are loved.

Feel the heat
On your cheeks
Like a kiss.

Oh, Father,
This is my heart’s request:

Bring my life
Into the sharpest
of focus.

That all may see
And know
You, Beautiful


You.

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