Thursday, March 13, 2014

Of Heartstrings and Other Such Things

When I would be there with you 
but I can't
And it must be enough
to fill the air with prayer 
and want
I think about the first day
When I held you close to me
Not knowing then how
riveting
A mother-love would be
...and how we never leave in full
the child; though miles may spread
twixt them and us
ah, 
Heart-strings are love's
never-ending thread
They bind us to our off-spring
and its tug, 
keen and unspoken
Comforts and reminds us
that heartstrings
cannot be broken

Janet aka, mom

There's just enough going on to remind me of this poem written the other summer;

Labor-pains 
When they tell us it’s over,
'It’s a girl; it’s a boy'
We're about to discover
As 'new-mother joy'
Washes our faces
  That with daughters and sons
Love's labor-pains
  Have now just begun

Oh, the labor of love
The ebbing and flow
Of white-knuckle clinging
  While learning to let go
Is a sacred experience
Simple word cannot grasp
As we teach them to fly
While we cradle and clasp

...I close my eyes now
Straining to recall
The curve of your face
When you were so small
  But all those thought pictures
I sealed in my heart
Have somehow grown blurry
In love’s ceaseless art

I trace Time's air hungrily
For it is a foe
Pulling you from me
Yet, I’ll never let go
For holding is not
A mere, physical grip
I'll hold you forever
As from my arms you slip

The call of life
Is unlike any other
It tugs tender off-spring
From arms of a mother
And this is the way
  Love surely must be
For we cannot stay
On our mother’s knee

Yes, when they tell us it’s over
Childbirth’s groaning and pain
We are about to discover
It never will be again
For travail is an inhale
  Exhale hug and kiss
  Bestowing a life-long
  Bitter-sweet bliss

© Janet Martin

2 comments:

  1. I love that poem.
    How was Melissa's day?

    ReplyDelete
  2. just got home from Matt's hockey game and she is not up anymore so I'll hear about it in the morning. Van is home in one piece;) phew!

    ReplyDelete

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