Mixing Bowl: ‘Come Closer’ by Anis Mojgani

Come closer.
Come into this.
You are quite the beauty.
If no one has ever told you that before,
know that right now: you are quite the beauty.
There is joy in how your mouth dances with your teeth
Your smiles are simply signs of how sacred your life actually is.
He made you and he was happy.
You make the Lord happy.
Come into this.
Come closer.
Know that something softer than us but just as holy planted the pieces of Himself into our feet that we might one day dance our way back.
Know that you are almost home.
Come just a little bit closer.
There are birds beating their wings beneath your breastplate, gentle sparrows who are aching to sing. Come aching hearts. Come soldiers of joy, doormen of truth. Know that my heart was too big for my body, so I let it go.
And most days this world has thinned me, to the point where I am just another cloud forgetting another flock of swans but believe me when I tell you that my soul has managed to squeeze itself into such narrow spaces; Place your hands beneath your heads when you sleep tonight and perhaps you will find it there making beauty, as we sleep, as we dream, as we turn over, when we turn over in ground may the ghosts that we have asked answers of do that turning, kneading us into crumbs of light and into this thing love, thing called life, come into it!
Come you wooden museums, gentle tigers, little giants!
I see teacups upside down glowing across your grins, your hearts are like my hands, some days all they do is tremble.
I am like you.
I am like you
I too at times am filled with so much fear, so much fear, but like a hallway must find the strength to walk through it.
Walk through this with me.
Through this church of blood, bone, and muscle, that is ours
There is a door knob glowing like chance before you.
Grab it, turn and pull, step through, back straight, chin up, eyes open, hearts loud.
Walk through this with me.
Walk through this with me.

(Video of a performance of this poem available here on Youtube)

This evening Rob Wylie introduced us to this wonderful poem by Anis Mojgani. The delicate language was resonant for some of other Persian and Middle Eastern poetry. So many rich images drew us in; language of delight normally reserved only for children; Why? Beginning with images of isolation, persistent invitations to…? To claim our created selves; to courage; to hopefulness; to vulnerability; to let ourselves be seen. A challenge but a promised hope, grounded in naked realism of our human state. There are parallels with Biblical images found in 2 Corinthians:

Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

(2 Corinthians 6:11-13, taken from ‘The Message’)

Mixing Bowl meets twice monthly at Holy Biscuit to discuss art and examine its connections with the Christian faith, see here for more info