David Harrity

After Hebrews 12:18-29

Who will walk away holding the pieces of my life?
These petitions simple forms of desire or disease.
Will this ever grow to something I can touch?

A darkness. A trumpet. A tempest. A fire.
Ingredients to make an easier belief?
No, simply moving pieces of our lives.

And what comes of all those prayers?
Gale of whispers ransoming release
from accepting necessity, the need for touch.

What I make in dark despises light so much.
Doubt: refuse the one who knows, who speaks.
Can I walk away with any peace inside my life?

Set aside the script—the piecemeal voice,
guilt's dusty hands rinsed clean.
I want this to be something close to touch.

Will you divide my simple words—
shake promises, mistake awe for reverence?
I'm walking back cradling the pieces of my life,
but can you become a body I can touch?

David Harrity is Assistant Professor of English at Campbellsville University's Louisville Center. He is author of the meditative, community-building writing guide “Making Manifest: On Faith, Creativity, and the Kingdom at Hand.” As the director of ANTLER (thisisantler.com), he travels the country conducting workshops and lectures on the intersection of faith and imagination. He completed an M.F.A at Spalding University.