Inkwell

I Want to Lose an Eye to Heaven

Inkwell March 26, 2025
Photography by Shana Van Roosbroek

I want to lose an eye to heaven. 
Half-blind, I’ll see my 
morning coffee. Black, 
rippling reminiscence of 
a dying world. 

Oh, but with my other eye, 
I become whole. 
peering past this earth-colored
curtain—Eden’s lost gate, 
a world to come. 

Graham Varnell is a poet and pastor. He and his wife, Anna, are pastoral leaders at a small ministry school in the southernmost region of Hawaii, Ka’u. Graham obtained a Bachelor of Science in Ministry Leadership from Moody Bible Institute in 2024. Recent publications include The Clayjar Review. His heart is for people to have tangible encounters with God through beauty.

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