Favorite Poetry/Meditation: "Mary"

Happy day-before-St. Nicholas Day!  :)  In my family, this is "Black Peter Day" - Black Peter is a little man dressed all in black who sort of heralds St. Nicholas by dropping little presents (which may or may not have been purchased from the dollar store a few days beforehand) in various people's paths the day before his feast.

But I am not here to talk about Black Peter or even dear old St. Nicholas, Puncher of Heretics.  (If you don't know that story, you're missing out, let me tell you.)  Today I am here to give you yet another poem and meditation.  I have this lovely meditation book by the Daughters of Mary which has many beautiful reflections in it, and I found one especially good one about Our Lady in it a couple of days ago while I was looking for something to push me into keeping Advent properly.  (If well begun is half done, I haven't even started yet.)  I'm not entirely sure that it could be called a poem, but it is formatted like one, so I shall.
It's particularly appropriate to think about Mary during Advent, when she carried Our Lord, and even more so since this Sunday marks one of her greatest feasts, the Immaculate Conception.
By the way, the author of this poem/meditation/thing, Archbishop Alban Goodier, was a wonderful writer of spiritual books, and I definitely recommend anything by him.

Mary

from The Life that is Light by Alban Goodier.

She had been foreshadowed by many,

Yet no one recognized her.

She was conceived immaculate,

And no one knew.

The Angel saluted her "Full of grace,"

And not a soul knew.

He told her the Lord was with her,

Told her she would be the Mother of God,

And not even Joseph knew.

To all she was just "a virgin espoused to a man,"

And her name was Mary.

No more.

Elizabeth saluted her,

"Blessed among women,"

Called her the Mother of her Lord.

Wondered that she should come to her,

Yet no one else knew.

She was only a child of Nazareth,

And "Could any good come out of Nazareth?"

She was the Mother of a Child,

In a carpenter's cottage.

 She was that to men and no more.

Men assumed they knew her,

She was easy to know.

"His mother, do we not know her?"

Yet how little did they know!

Mary, "the Handmaid of the Lord"
Mary espoused to the Carpenter

Mary "understanding not"

Mary "pondering in her heart"

Content to be no more.

Yet how much more she is

Mary, Mother of God

Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ

Whom "all generations shall call blessed."