Surprise in the Shadows
As we approach the longest night of the year we also might notice things happening with shadows. With the sun low in the sky emitting apportioned light, shadows become distorted even more and dance differently to slower somber tunes. Shadows also play a role in Advent. We in the shadows of a bleak midwinter are called to use our time in shadow in preparation and with active hope. And so, in this poem by Elizabeth Jennings entitled Visitation I was caught up short by the repetition of “shadow”. Notice “shadows adrift from light”, “overshadowed the shadow of the angel”, and the “child who laid his shadow on their afternoon”. These images seem to evoke accompanying stillness and secrecy and even “springing”. The image by Rembrandt also uses light and shadow to reveal mystery and divinity. Through this poetic sibilance I am left with an urge to share this holy interruption.
The Visitation
She had not held her secret long enough
To covet it but wished it shared as though
Telling it would tame the terrifying moment
When she, most calm in her own afternoon,
-----Felt the intrepid angel, heard
His beating wings, his voice across her prayer.
This was the thing she needed to impart
The uncalm moment, the strange interruption,
The angel bringing pain disguised as joy,
But mixed with this was something she could share
-----And not abandon, simply how
A child sprang in her like the first of seeds.
And in the stillness of that other day
The afternoon exposed its emptiness,
Shadows adrift from light, the long road turning
In a dry sequence of the sun. And she
-----No apprehensive figure seemed,
Only a moving silence through the land.
And all her journeying was a caressing
Within her mind of secrets to be spoken.
The simple fact of birth soon overshadowed
The shadow of the angel. When she came
-----Close to her cousin’s house she kept
Only the message of her happiness.
And those two women in their quick embrace
Gazed at each other with looks undisturbed
By men or miracles. It was the child
Who laid his shadow on their afternoon
-----By stirring suddenly, by bringing
Back the broad echoes of those beating wings.
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