by Leah
I write poems to process my emotions, mark significant shifts in my life, and just because I enjoy playing with words. Here are a couple I wrote about nursing that capture the ambivalence of being tied to someone else--both inescapably roped in and wonderfully, freely bonded. Hmmm...that calls to mind the words of the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and a similar push-and-pull relationship with God:
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter
Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee.
Neither poem is explicitly spiritual, but the underlying relationship dynamic in both poems certainly mirrors aspects of human relationship with God. And, of course, there are lots of references in the Bible to nursing in general and to God as a mother nursing her child/ren*...sounds like the makings of a whole 'nother post on the theological and spiritual aspects of nursing! Hope you enjoy.
I write poems to process my emotions, mark significant shifts in my life, and just because I enjoy playing with words. Here are a couple I wrote about nursing that capture the ambivalence of being tied to someone else--both inescapably roped in and wonderfully, freely bonded. Hmmm...that calls to mind the words of the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and a similar push-and-pull relationship with God:
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter
Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee.
Neither poem is explicitly spiritual, but the underlying relationship dynamic in both poems certainly mirrors aspects of human relationship with God. And, of course, there are lots of references in the Bible to nursing in general and to God as a mother nursing her child/ren*...sounds like the makings of a whole 'nother post on the theological and spiritual aspects of nursing! Hope you enjoy.
Nursing I
She murmurs
And my whole body turns on its axis
Like the shift of a planet from one season to the next.
As my spine comes into alignment with hers,
I tip my breast to her face and wait
For her to catch me in her grip
Pulling me irresistibly, irrevocably into her orbit.
She murmurs
And my whole body turns on its axis
Like the shift of a planet from one season to the next.
As my spine comes into alignment with hers,
I tip my breast to her face and wait
For her to catch me in her grip
Pulling me irresistibly, irrevocably into her orbit.
Nursing II
At first it felt like a beautiful afternoon at the beach,
All sun shine and gentle waves,
With one curious seagull asking for a bit of my lunch.
Once given, it attracted a harrowing, raucous flock
Demanding tribute, plucking every last crumb from my hands
Before withdrawing only a few feet to wait, cavernously,
To poach on my next furtive attempt to feed myself.
Now our interaction is more ritual than attack
More vendor and customer bargaining in the souk.
With established gestures and small talk,
We approach and retreat from the transaction at hand
Both knowing that, unlike
Any true bargaining,
Neither of us can walk away.
No matter how well you try to prepare
Motherhood ambushes you with a violent love--
Crashes over you, abrading skin with salt and grit.
Finally you fight to the surface, eyes stinging
Throat raw, and find an altered equilibrium,
Your new center of gravity bobbing in your arms.
The discordant sounds of the bazaar eventually
Retreat to a low-grade buzz;
The pressure of where to get the best price subsides.
The rhythm of swamping and surfacing
And the feel of sand in your teeth become familiar,
And you surprise yourself by turning into
What they call a Mother
While that outrageously opportunistic creature surprises you by
Turning into your child.
*Psalm 131, which images the Psalmist as having been w
eaned by Go d; I Peter 2:2-3, where Peter refers to the spiritual sustenance we receive from God as "milk"; Isaiah 49:14-16, where God compares God's self to a nursing mother incapable of forgetting her child Israel...now I know what that feels like!; Genesis 17:1 where God is referred to as El Shaddai, a title with many possible roots, including the word "breast"...and more!