The sky could not contain in all its blue
The purity that soared to its embrace;
Even the sun felt oddly out of place
When virgin brilliance sent its rays askew.
For all creation held its breath anew,
As once it did when, young and full of grace,
She said her yes and changed the human race,
So now, fulfilled, as heavenward she flew.
And Gabriel, serene and strangely proud,
Observed her climb to glory cloud by cloud.
My earthly eyes can such things hardly spy,
Though sometimes by God’s grace I seem allowed
To glimpse that which I cannot disavow:
The richer blue her soul has lent the sky.
Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Dappled Things, the St. Austin Review, Amethyst Review, Pensive Journal, Forma Journal, and The Society of Classical Poets. He is a certified catechist with the Archdiocese of New York, a Benedictine oblate of St. Mary’s Abbey in Morriston, NJ, and editor of The Catholic Poetry Room.