The Visitation

(Found here)

Here is a meeting made of hidden joys

Of lightenings cloistered in a narrow place,

From quiet hearts the sudden flame of praise,

And in the womb the quickening kick of grace.

Two women on the very edge of things

Unnoticed and unknown to men of power,

But in their flesh the hidden Spirit sings

And in their lives the buds of blessing flower.

And Mary stands with all we call ‘too young,’

Elizabeth with all called ‘past their prime.’

They sing today for all the great unsung

Women who turned eternity to time,

Favoured of heaven, outcast on the earth,

Prophets who bring the best in us to birth.

~Malcolm Guite