see / through – a poem by Christopher N. West

Image credit: Holy Trinity Cathedral, Down

see / through
(after the installation at Down Cathedral)

                  see
                  /
               through


                     not there  
                            but
                       cut      out

                           the air
                       is
                           his
                           him



                 you
                       move
               and         he
                            moves

               no – he is
                          the   moving


           s c r  i  p   t   u   r    e        grows
              but here it bleeds
                                    through


                     polished stone
                         brass   wound
              look: 
                         the body
                           gone


             so what
                do   you   see
                         through
                  the gone       one


                   glass         faces
                       your own
              the ache           of being
                            seen
 

                     no triumph
                         only
                  metal    air     light

                             and you

                        caught

                          inside
                             the    cut

Poet’s Note: the cathedral was reordered a few years ago around the theme of pilgrimage. A brass cross was suspended over the altar. Revealed gradually as pilgrims enter, the cross’s impact lies largely in its emptiness: it is pierced by a cut-out silhouette of the crucified Christ. Pilgrims are invited to ‘see through’ Christ. The surrounding space becomes part of the work, so what is perceived through the crucified Christ depends on the viewer’s angle.

Christopher N. West (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Practical Theology at the University of Aberdeen. He is also an Irish Anglican priest.