ABSTRACT
The divine attachment models developed in the work of Flannery O’Connor and Lucille Clifton suggest a relationship between human parental models and the authors’ God images. Szybist’s work breaks with this tradition in offering a divine attachment model that images the divine as a romantic lover rather than a parent. Szybist ages the Virgin Mary in her poems to explore the erotic desire of the aging religious body. In this postmodern remake of the biblical Annunciation, the character-poet-speaker expresses active desire in her spiritual encounters with multiple amorous articulations of the divine ranging from girlhood to old age. The most salient for this study include angelophonies with Gabriel and Gabriela—a variation of Flannery O’Connor’s theophanies—in Annunciation scenes featuring Mary at different stages of life.
