Anna
There is a voice, one at least, in every generation.
It might be feminine and old, as it was with Anna.
She spoke as prophets do, in a tone uniquely true.
Believable too.
How did she come to be God’s choice?
Why her voice?
– for many cry in the wilderness
Meandering a lifetime
(or a lifetime ago)
Finding themselves
In a despondent desert
Love, loss, and grief
Are familiar stories
In seekers and seers,
And so for Anna –
After seven years wed,
She was a bride bereft
And widow weeping. Perhaps
A kind rabbi noticed her.
Perhaps it was Simeon.
How grateful she was to be seen.
For Anna stories don’t make a sage.
She noticed, listened reflected
She dared to act immediately
On her inner directive
There in the Temple, in the women’s courtyard.
Where Sabbaths offering leave their remnant stench.
She waited steadfastly
And became a prayer
And when all fell away
Except the promise of God
She recognised him – the child.
She saw light
And voiced her insight
Gave hope to the people
God’s face in a holy place
She was a mystic before
she was a prophet
Marlene Marburg August 2024