to sing the body ecstatic

to sing the body ecstatic

Ely, Cambridgeshire. 

Jonathan Chan

first, you must draw near to the 
mystery of another face, the illusory 
glimpse of spiritual fabric. second, 
swallow the gift of a sacred place, 
broken for you in shared tongues– 
the pointed arches of crude victory, 
the slats revealing widened sanctuary, 
the painted memory of hewed flesh, the 
statues shattered by priestly pendulums. 
here is piety at its most elemental: the 
profound otherness of brick and glass, 
a dark trail leading to fixtures of wood. 
third, recall that all places are sacred and 
desecrated and to wander through them 
is precious. chatter rises over a garden’s 
sprinkling, a hill’s curvature, and the mind 
rejoices for the paring of consciousness. 
at once, there is an end to itinerance, only 
that familiar gaze, on green, on faces, on 
their oceanic sum, expecting nothing 
in return. 

---

Jonathan Chan
Poet

Jonathan Chan received a BA in English from the University of Cambridge. Born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother, he was raised in Singapore where he is presently based. He is a naturalised Singaporean citizen. He is interested in questions of faith, creative expression, and human identity.

Photograph by Gabriela Ferreira