Home > Work > Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation
1 " Mary's SongBlue homespun and the bend of my breastkeep warm this small hot naked starfallen to my arms. (Rest...you who have had so farto come.) Now nearness satisfiesthe body of God sweetly. Quiet he lieswhose vigor hurleda universe. He sleepswhose eyelids have not closed before.His breath (so slight it seemsno breath at all) once ruffled the dark deepsto sprout a world.Charmed by doves' voices, the whisper of straw,he dreams,hearing no music from his other spheres.Breath, mouth, ears, eyeshe is curtailedwho overflowed all skies,all years.Older than eternity, now heis new. Now native to earth as I am, nailedto my poor planet, caught that I might be free,blind in my womb to know my darkness ended,brought to this birthfor me to be new-born,and for him to see me mendedI must seen him torn. "
― Luci Shaw , Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation
2 " Too Much to AskIt seemed too much to ask of one small virgin that she should stake shame against the will of God. All she had to hold to, later, were those soft, inward flutterings and the remembered surprise of a brief encounter - spirit with flesh. Who would think it more than a dream wish? An implausible, laughable defense.And "
3 " It seemed too much to ask of one small virgin that she should stake shame against the will of God. All she had to hold to, later, were those soft, inward flutterings and the remembered surprise of a brief encounter - spirit with flesh. Who would think it more than a dream wish? An implausible, laughable defense.And "
4 " I pray my soul will welcome always that small seed. That I will hail it when it enters me.I don't mind being grit, soil, dirt, mud-brown, laced with the rot of old leaves, if only the seedcan "