Before these possessions you love
slip away, say what Mary said
when she was surprised by Gabriel.
I'll hide inside God.
Naked in her room
she saw a form of beauty
that could give her new life.
Like the sun coming up,
or a rose as it opens,
she leaped, as her habit was,
out of herself into the presence.
There was fire in the channel of her breath.
Light and majesty came.
I am smoke from the fire
and proof of its existence,
more than any external form.
(The poem is Colin Barks’ translation. The painting is by Henry Tanner.)
