Thursday, December 10, 2009

Poem: The Stream and the Sapphire by Denise Levertov

She had been a child who played, ate, slept
like any other child - but unlike others,
wept only for pity, laughed
in joy not triumph.
Compassion and intelligence
fused in her, indivisible.

Called to a destiny more momentous
than any in all of Time,
She did not quail,
only asked

a simple, "How can it be?
and gravely, courteously,
took to heart the angel's reply,
perceiving instantly
the astounding ministry she was offered:

to bear in her womb
Infinite weight and lightness; to carry
in hiddden, finite inwardness,
nine months of Eternity; to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power -
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.

Then to bring to birth,
push out into air, a Man-child
needing, like any other,
milk and love -

but who was God.

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