Each Friday of Advent, I’ll be sharing from a series of five Advent poems I wrote for John Knox Presbyterian Church in Seattle. I hope they speak to you as you prepare for the coming of Christmas.
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,
no longer dressed in brown linen, but with fire:
the sun’s silk my gown. I leaned into the swirl of gold and lit.
Have I created my Creator?
My mother clucks her tongue. Questions, she says,
cause confusion. She could never hold what I saw:
the crown upon this plain brown head,
twelve stars in motion, set spinning like a child’s toy,
and rushing towards me, flames in its wake, blazed
the greater star, its hot white orb.
Should I tell you it entered me, how the warm simmer settled?
When I woke to this dirt floor, my mother’s voice
in the next room, issuing me out the door,
I ran my hands down my belly,
knew what is real is the crown, not the dirt.
Later, when the nausea came, when the accusations
birthed, when all those I loved turned enemies,
I would stand in the garden, arms raised,
close my eyes and feel the spinning crown encircling,
feel this star descending into human form.
Love, love, love this poem, Micha! The imagery is so vivid. Thank you for sharing and inviting me to ponder Mary’s experience. I will read it again with Jamie and Ben.
-Susan
Absolutely beautiful.
So incredibly beautiful, my friend!
This is honestly beautiful!
Did you attend John Knox?? I’m a relatively new reader to your blog and have LOVED your writing, and just recently moved away from Seattle where I had become close friends with the former senior pastor of Knox Pres and learned a lot about the congregation through conversations with him. I’m curious what your connection is to them! Thanks for sharing your writing with the rest of the world!
Hey Sarah. I haven’t attended John Knox (I’ve actually never been to Seattle!), but I have blogging friend who was serving as Arts and Worship Coordinator (her title was something like that) last year and she asked me if I’d write some poems to go with the sermons. I love that you’re friends with the pastor! Small world.
beautiful
lovely.
lovely. so vivid!
I like it, but I am having trouble understanding some of the images. Do you mean to say that what happened to Mary at the Annunciation was a foreshadowing for what would happen in Revelation?
Lyndsey, thanks for reading it so closely. Honestly I didn’t intend to make any statement or interpretation of Revelation in this poem, though I’m sure it could be read that way (which is ok with me). The pastor was preaching from this passage about Mary and I wish I knew what he actually had to say about it. But I was more intrigued with the image of this woman’s head encircled by stars. I was asking myself what really happened when Mary became impregnated…and if it was this grand mystical experience, could it be possible that she could have experienced it as such a thing? The image in Revelation gave me a starting place for that…
Wow. So great.
This has me looking forward to next Friday.
Wow, such kind comments today, you guys. Thanks.
Oh, my. Thank you for this. I look forward to the next few Fridays.
This is burning, breathless kiss. Beautiful, friend.
Wonderful. More, please
I think I just exhaled. Beautiful. Thank you.
It literally took my breath away for a moment. I’m glad that I didn’t see this till today, a great one to ponder on for this week.
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So powerful and beautiful. “Did I create my Creator?”
Chills and tears here friend.
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