The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

[for Valentines Day]

MY ANGEL

Your birth day—
one of those precious moments
when the angels,
if there were any,
sang.

And if Simon had heard them,
he would have stood,
like Paula and Randy,
in awe,
speechless,
dancing to the rhythm of your mother
giving birth to one of them,
if there were any.

And if they had chosen to not exist,
you are yet one of them,
an angel,
mine.
 

Speaking of speechless......

OK I'm revisiting this. Clever combination of Biblical and reality dance competition  references: (is it So You Think You Can Dance?) 

dancing to the rhythm of your mother
giving birth to one of them,

Ewwww!

Grotesque as it might be, I totally enjoyed the read, it appealed to the darker side of my sense of humor, 


 

Qwerty,

I had to ruminate on this and absorb it under two different frames of mind, and I'm glad I did.

This is such a beautifully layered, sparsely worded poem. I got as much reading between the lines as I did absorbing the words.

I see the N as a young father with an ancient soul.

And of course, there are angels. Sounds like you have a few.

~Deb

How interesting that Deb read this so much differently than I did. I thought it was written to an adult with a certain amount of ambivalence maybe even snidery. I now see that there is a newborn in the picture. I will let my first post stand despite being embarrassed about how far off I was.

Can poetry be in the eye of the beholder?

Indar,

I think we all see things in different frames of mind and I almost commented about the fact that only a mother would say, "Ew" to the visual of the "dance" of giving birth.

I can see how a father can see a woman giving birth as a dance but as a woman, giving birth is about as far away from dancing as one can get. I love dancing. Going through childbirth, not so much.

Unless, of course, you're a cool, hip-swaying, laid-back hippie with a new age birth plan.

I'm glad the N saw the birth of his children that way. I've also wondered if babies come from angels.

~Deb

Unless, of course, you're a cool, hip-swaying, laid-back hippie with a new age birth plan....

...riding a unicorn . I think those "beautiful, painless births" were a myth.