"Annunciation" by Marie Howe →
Even if I don’t see it again—nor ever feel it
I know it is—and that if once it hailed me
it ever does—
And so it is myself I want to turn in that direction
not as towards a place, but it was a tilting
within myself,
as one turns a mirror to flash the light to where
it isn’t—I was blinded like that—and swam
in what shone at me
only able to endure it by being no one and so
specifically myself I thought I’d die
from being loved like that.
~Marie Howe
I am not at all religious; I have been conflicted about many aspects of the christian faith and it’s stories. And, I know this feeling. I have experienced this. And even before I had, it was the feeling I searched for, the lack of something never experienced that pulled me toward it. And I’m guessing, maybe, you know a little about this too: the yearning for the light or the impelling experience of it. I don’t believe it’s sacrilege to suggest we all have a shining as potentially world-changing inside of us. I am practicing turning toward that light.
With gratitude to Maura McGovern of Texturism for sharing Marie Howe’s OnBeing interview with me.
