Jun 3
Birth Song
Release me, O Sea
salt-water womb
from your dark chaos
birth me
on the rising tide
yearning for the moon
on the rock
there is safety
I long for dry land
keep my breath close
from your bound molecules
from your unbearable density
release me, O Sea
born me and toss me
to the safety of the land
Pamela Olson, 6/3/08
This was poem was inspired
by the painting by Rick Mobbs
7 comments7 Comments so far
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That is very beautiful. I love being immediately drawn in by your use of the first person; I actually felt myself alone upon the waves.
Pam, I like this poem — a lot — but don’t understand your use of “born”. I thought the word was strictly past-tense. No matter, like all your work, this is very good.
Ralph– I confess that my use of the ‘born’ was one of poetic license. I just like the sound of the word in the line; birthed just didn’t make it.
This is absolutely wonderful.
I like it too. What about bear me, for born me? Just a thought. You have the poetic license (I still have to look twice to spell license). Drive on!
OK I have ruminated and received feedback and decided to change ‘born’ to ‘birth’. I think it is confusing and I have repeated the poem aloud several times both ways and think I am happy with ‘birth’.
My license does allow for “U” turns.
[...] Pam, author of coosacreek/amputated moon, wrote Birth Song [...]