Keyhole

An Easter Sonnet

Shin Young-Hun, Outreach of the New Covenant, in The Bible Through Asian Eyes, eds. Masao Takenaka and Ron O’Grady (Auckland: Pace Publishing, 1991), 163.

Keyhole

But then in that impenetrable door
   which darkens full the end of history’s hall
was carved a keyhole cast of dust and lore
   that casts the stroke of dawn upon the wall.

Now staring at the sight, we see a man
   set bright against death’s dark finality;
and peering through the light we spy his plan:
   our world set right for all eternity.

His body shows the life that we can know
   beyond that door, mysteriously new;
his words are truth who told us long ago:
   he is the only way to enter through.

He lights our path whom darkness cannot hold:
Christ is the keyhole—glimpse and gate twofold.

---

About the Poem and Painting

My love for John Donne’s sonnets, particularly his use of extended metaphors (called “conceits”), comes through in this very visual metaphysical sonnet. I had fun opening out several different facets of the metaphor of Jesus’ risen body as the keyhole in death’s door, letting in a sliver of light from the new creation. I also enjoyed weaving John 14:6 (“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”) into the third stanza.

I chose this painting by Korean artist Shin Young-Hun partly because it subtly evokes for me the poem’s playful visual link between Christ’s risen body and the shape of a keyhole. But more than that, I love the brilliant “theology in paint” going on here. Victoria Emily Jones, author of the excellent Art & Theology blog, writes:

“I believe that the pointing figure in the middle ground is a second manifestation of Jesus. Whereas in the foreground he brings under and fills up, here he sends out; he points to the vast needs that still exist just across the way. … Drawing on a representational cliché—Jesus with open arms—Shin Young-Hun suggests that the gospel doesn’t just beckon the individual into one great big warm bear hug with Jesus, just you and him; rather, it compels us to reach out to others with the love we’ve experienced in Christ.”

Amen!

---

Notes

Thanks to Ekstasis Magazine for originally publishing this poem. And thank you for reading, sharing, and commenting. I’m always so encouraged by you all!

For an even more playful Easter poem, check out my one-word poem “Resurrection.”

Happy Easter! He is risen!

---