It’s Mother’s Day here in the UK and as well as yesterday’s flowers and having No 1 Daughter here for breakfast, a special treat, there were cards and phone calls. I am a very lucky Mum.
I wanted to give you a poem today, for all Mums, with us or not and whom we honour with our gratitude and our love. This poem by Sylvia Plath is a reminder of the early days of Motherhood and I love its opening line –
” Love set you going like a fat gold watch”, the sense of “moth breath” which so catches the delicacy of a new-born’s breathing and the way the baby’s voice has “clear vowels” which “rise like balloons,” reminiscent for me of all four of ours.
Here is Morning Song by Sylvia Plath.
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cryTook its place among the elements.Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.In a drafty museum, your nakednessShadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.I’m no more your motherThan the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slowEffacement at the wind’s hand.All night your moth-breathFlickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:A far sea moves in my ear.One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floralIn my Victorian nightgown.Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window squareWhitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you tryYour handful of notes;The clear vowels rise like balloons.
The Blackbirds have now eaten all the seedy pastry I put out for them. I need to make some more.
Blackbird in the feeding house
Here is my link to Soulful Sunday . Thank you Mindful Gardener for the meme.
Island Time
April 1, 2018 at 4:42 pm
Very nice post. Love this poem by Sylvia Plath! Thank you.
Mama Cormier
March 13, 2018 at 8:27 pm
Happy Mother’s Day. I have to wait till May.
mybeautfulthings
March 13, 2018 at 8:28 pm
Thank you. I’ll wish you a happy day in May then – and all the days in between and afterwards! 🙂
Patty B
March 12, 2018 at 12:08 pm
Happy Mother’s Day. ❤️
Ali
March 12, 2018 at 9:51 am
This is very strange and wonderful. We had a poetry hour yesterday after lunch, and this is the poem I chose as my favourite poem ever! We studied it for A level English and I have loved it ever since.
mybeautfulthings
March 12, 2018 at 9:59 am
What delightful synchronicity! I love it too and am so pleased that it touched you and your memories. 🙂
Seyi Sandra
March 11, 2018 at 8:25 pm
Awesome post! I love the poem. It invoked vivid images of years gone by. I love being a mum, and still enjoy my mother’s love. Life couldn’t be better! Happy Mother’s day!😀❤️