Bonus Poem: Mary

This is the first of five new poems I'll post each week through Advent. 

For poems for Advent 1, Year A, please see Year A, First Sunday of Advent

Henry Ossawa Tanner: The Annunciation (1898)

Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

“She was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”  (Matthew 1:18)
 

Found by whom, one wonders.
Mary, of course.
And certainly Joseph.
“I’m pregnant, my love,” she whispers.
But found by who else?
Is it anyone else’s business
That she’s pregnant?
How deeply personal is pregnancy,
With all its fear and joy,
Its worry and its hope.
From this word, “was found”—εὑρέθη—
Comes “Eureka!” “I’ve found it!”
And this, that we might cry today,
“I have found him!”
Is still the Holy Spirit’s business.
 

Scott L. Barton