Feast of the Assumption

Here are some poems for the Feast of the Assumption:

Assumption

What does it mean, this assumption?
For her it was simply a matter of following
Her son to where his lights led her,
Follow before the worms got at her
Or that musty underground smell.
She followed him to a portico near the big stars
To look out over a night and a universe also.
They sat there in silence deep as a well
As they once sat in Nazareth counting the stars.
They watched and saw an old star sputtering
And a new star spinning out into the spaces
That lapped her like cool black waters.
Her son said, "This is for ever"
And she, with heart listening,
Sought to believe him.

– Edward Seifert. Emmanuel. July 1985, page 311.

Assumption - Mother of All on High, Pray for Us Yet

Nothing is left me here. The world's a corridor,
vacant, echoing the great ones' passage through.
It is closed doors in rows: behind them, murmuring
of a second generation's other businesses.
Once I felt the kick of God within:
nothing else seemed great once that had been.

Your will is done,
and henceforth I will be
a silent smiling lady in a tapestry.

Your will is done,
and henceforth I am known
as a painted tiptoe figure in a pointed arch of stone.

Your will be done:
henceforth I watch with all
God's heroes in their sad unsleeping vigil
for earth's ball.

– Timothy Chappell. New Blackfriar, June 1996, page 287.

A Middle English Poem about the Assumption:

Crist sayde to hur:
“Com, my swete, com, my flour,
Com, my culver, myn owne boure,
Com, my modyr, now wyth me:
For hevyn qwene I make thee.”

Then the body sat up, and lowted to Crist, and sayde:
“My swete sonne, with al my love
I com wyth thee to thyn above;
Wher thou art now, let me be,
For al my love ys layde on thee.”

Translation

Christ visited the body of Mary, and said:
“Come my sweet, come my flower,
Come my dove, come my bower,
Come, my mother, now with me,
For heaven’s Queen I make thee.”

Then the body sat up, bowed to Christ, and said:
“My sweet son, with all my love
I come with you to heaven above:
Where you are now, let me be
For all my love I lay on thee.”

tr. Thomas L. Macdonald