In 1999, the United Nations proclaimed March 21 as World Poetry Day as “an invitation to reflect on the power of language and the full development of each person’s creative abilities.”
To celebrate that, below is the poem I wrote about my daughter’s birth story and gave to my husband on his first Father’s Day.
My husband holding Sofie the morning after she was born.
Athenian Birth
by Donna DeForbes, June 2007
The journey of
just me and you
sharing
time and space and giddy daydreams;
you—attentive, caring,
honoring my ripeness,
a moment in time never to be repeated—
ends with a river flowing
out of me,
our water baby, ready to meet us.
Time stands still for minutes, hours,
becomes a GoldenEagle
crescent moon day,
then
fluttery contractions snowball
into induced pain, nonstop
shaking tremors,
breathing, heaving,
sniff huff,
hee hee hoo!
crying,
falling heartbeat.
I call to you through epi-fog and oxygen
masks—is everything okay?
Your eyes answer yes.
Three shifts later,
you and the nurse
wrenching me open
holding me aloft
coaxing;
the flower petals shift—
a sighting of dark hair
your tears offer me renewed energy,
yet two hours later
she still has not arrived.
Sharpe words—vacuum or cesarean—
I am scared, unsure,
turn to you for the answer.
You–
calm, sane, gentle
softly funny
tender-hearted
rock—
my port, my bright light,
my center of being,
witness to the glorious birth
our wisdom goddess springing forth
from primordial depths—blood and fluid
and active love. Our victory over the knife.
You hold my story in awe,
breathing in
the
Sacred
Feminine.
