Poetry Friday on Christmas Eve

 

 

 

 

 

 

MADE FLESH

After
the bright beam of hot annunciation
fused heaven with dark earth
his searing sharply focused light
went out for a while
eclipsed in amniotic gloom:
his cool immensity of splendor
his universal grace
small-folded in a warm dim
female space–
the Word stern-sentenced
to be nine months dumb–
infinity walled in a womb
until the next enormity–
the Mighty, after submission
to a woman’s pains
helpless on a barn-bare floor
first-tasting bitter death

Now
I in him surrender
to the crush and cry of birth.
Because eternity
was closeted in time
he is my open door
to forever.
From his imprisonment my freedoms grow,
find wings.
Part of his body, I transcend this flesh.
From his sweet silence my mouth sings.
Out of his dark I glow.
My life, as his,
slips through death’s mesh,
time’s bars,
joins hands with heaven,
speaks with stars.

by Luci Shaw

Poetry Friday032

I’m reading my Bible this month,  following along in Luke chapters 1 and 2, enjoying the wonderful details of the Christmas Story… that ageless story of the prophecy areound, conception of and humble yet miraculous birth of my Lord Jesus Christ. I came across this poem in the sidebar of my Bible (Women’s Devotional Bible – NIV), and want to share it with you today. It is lovely.

Virgin

by Luci Shaw

As if until that moment

nothing real

had happened since creation

As if outside the world were empty

so that she and he were all

there was – he mover, she moved upon

As if her submission were the most

dynamic of all works; as if

no one had ever said Yes like that

As if one day the sun had no place

in all the universe to pour it’s gold

but her small room.