Lamp

A poem for Steve Silvern and inspired by a reading of Hasidic texts on Yom Kippur

I am a shuttered lantern
My shutter
Closed
Frozen
Rusted
Shut
Stuck
Frozen
By the coldness of my heart
Rusted by tears
Mine
Sprung from hopelessness
Others’
That I failed to wipe away
Or
Caused
By
My callousness

Shut because
The dark is quiet
I cannot see
But
I cannot be seen

Stuck
As I am stuck
In
The course of my life

Please
Open my shutter
Shatter my darkness
Reveal my
Inner
Imperishable
Fire
That is
Me
Mine
And
Yours
That of me
That is
You
Even though I fear
I fear
The pain
Of
Unfreezing
The flakes of
Shame
Oxidized by my guilt
Opening
To the light
Though
I may see
I may see
What I do not want
To see
I may be seen

Help me move
From
The comfort of stasis
The stasis of comfort

Remind me
I am
A being of light
Light is my center
Let my part
My heart
My center
Call
To
The Greater Light

Perhaps I will
Shatter
So filled with light
So be it
What is shattered can be repaired
Shell by shell
Husk by husk

Let me
Be
Be what I truly am
A lamp
Shining
Seeing
Being seen

Let me be
A lamp
Lighting the world.

photo credit