Mary and Eve

A Poem and Illustration for the First Week of Advent

For Advent this year, I will be sharing a poem and a work of visual art each week.

This week’s poem is “Mary and Eve,” an ekphrastic poem (a poem written about a work of visual art) inspired by Sister Grace Remington’s illustration Mary and Eve. I hope these works of art help you to wonder afresh at the coming of the Savior, mysteriously foretold in the curse of Genesis 3:15:

“And I will put enmity
     between you and the woman,
     and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
     and you will strike his heel.”

Sister Grace Remington, OSCO, “Mary and Eve” (crayon and pencil, 2005). © Sisters of the Mississippi Abbey.

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Mary and Eve

	after the illustration by Sister Grace Remington

Then Mary took Eve’s hand—
     which once had felt the tender flesh
     of the forbidden fruit, plucked fresh,
defying God’s command

in favor of the snake’s:
     “You’ll be like gods!” the snake had lied,
     and so she’d eaten, fallen, died,
watched all creation break—

and yet, within that curse
     had burned a seed, sown like a spark,
     that sang of freedom from the dark
in veiled and pregnant verse.

Eve laid her sin-stained hand
     on Mary and her hidden Kin
     and felt the Promise kick within
her womb: their God made man!

The snake had left her dead—
     this child whose very name meant Life—
     but here she touched, amid her strife,
the One who’d crush its head.

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Notes

For more about Remington’s illustration, check out this interview with her in Plough. You can purchase official prints of her illustration at Monastery Candy.

Thanks to Ekstasis Magazine for originally publishing this poem.

Last year, I translated this poem into Thai (helped by Papink Vareerat) for an Advent arts night at a local church. Though it’s not in a traditional Thai poetic form and doesn’t rhyme, I’m quite proud of these eight-syllable lines we crafted!

Thanks for reading, feel free to share, and have a wonderful first week of Advent!