from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
They hail me Mary, full of grace<\/em>.
\nThey bless me: brave, obedient\u2014holy.
\nWhat would you have said to the twelve-foot,
\nlight-soaked man, a gold flecked tower
\nwhose honey lips spoke your name? I said Yes<\/em>.
\nThen ran, traveled days, silent, hungry,
\npurging in the grass, to my cousin\u2019s.
\nI knew nowhere else to go.<\/p>\nI found Elizabeth, impossibly, full
\nwith child. She, fifty and bare, as pregnant
\nas I, thirteen, unknown. We, an absurd pair.
\nDid I hope she would recognize my angel tale,
\nbelieve for me what I hardly could?
\nThe Lord is with thee<\/em>, she said.
\nHer baby soared inside.<\/p>\nHer face was vague to my memory.
\nWhat I recalled was her voice: in candlelight,
\nshe once tucked me under wool with my sisters,
\nsang us to sleep with poems of Yahweh.
\nHow easily she spoke of God,
\nas if he were a neighbor, a fish vendor on the street.<\/p>\nBlessed art thou among women. Blessed is the fruit <\/em>
\nof thy womb<\/em>. For three months she hid me
\nfrom rumors, from my angry betrothed.
\nI took walks. I threw up. I ate.
\nRobes can only hide so much.<\/p>\nThen I stood beside the midwife, water basin
\nin hand while my cousin squatted and screamed.
\nI knew what my Yes <\/em>meant this body must do
\nand wept for myself, for this child of God
\ngiven to my clumsy care.<\/p>\nWho am I?<\/em> I once said to Elizabeth
\nafter dinner, beside our fire. I am small <\/em>
\nand weak in faith<\/em>. She placed her palm
\non my cheek, whispered, You\u2019re God\u2019s<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Micha Boyett. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint or post without attribution.<\/em><\/p>\n
This is from a series of five Advent poems I wrote for\u00a0John Knox Presbyterian Church<\/a>\u00a0in Seattle. See the first poem here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Lord is With Thee\u00a0 from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1 They hail me Mary, full of grace. They bless me: brave, obedient\u2014holy. 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":999,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20,44,59,114,124],"class_list":["post-5157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-advent","tag-family","tag-grace","tag-saints","tag-story"],"yoast_head":"\n
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