“…a son, a male child, who will rule all nations with an iron scepter.”   -Revelation 12:5 He entered, not a barn, not a hay-filled nursery, but a galaxy, a kingdom groaning for his rule. He arrived, not from a young woman, trembling and homeless, but a queen enthroned in stars. We saw him, one fleshy hand raised in reflex, as if in his infancy, we might grasp deliverance. He was found, not in David’s town, not in swaddling cloths, an unknown child wiggling in straw, but as a hero … [Read more...]

“and for him to see me mended / I must see him torn.”  -Luci Shaw “Mary’s Song” He stood at the door, wet-faced and panting. in his hands three baby birds. They’re hungry, he sniffed, nested them in a bowl with grass, fed them worms until they died. After, I held him for an hour, his soul too much for this world. Who doesn’t want normal for her son? Yet he chose the lonely of the children, played ball with the friendless. He was quiet, sat with me long hours, watching: the … [Read more...]

"For Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." -Handel’s Messiah (from Isaiah, chapter 60) “Immensity, cloister’d in thy dear womb, / Now leaves His well-beloved imprisonment. -John Donne “La Corona” We are all some mother’s child, all born through great pain, then a flood of release, an … [Read more...]

The Lord is With Thee  -from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1 They hail me Mary, full of grace. They bless me: brave, obedient—holy. What would you have said to the twelve-foot, light-soaked man, a gold flecked tower whose honey lips spoke your name? I said Yes. Then ran, traveled days, silent, hungry, purging in the grass, to my cousin’s. I knew nowhere else to go. I found Elizabeth, impossibly, full with child. She, fifty and bare, as pregnant as I, thirteen, unknown. We, an absurd … [Read more...]

Star “A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon 
under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.”
   -Revelation 12:1 “…keep warm this small hot naked star/ fallen into my arms.”  -Luci Shaw, “Mary’s Song”   After the angel dissolved, I stood among the skies, clothed not in spun linen, but in fire: the sun’s silk my gown. I leaned into the swirl of gold and lit. Have I created my Creator? My … [Read more...]