Hello, Maureen and Cleo! Thank you both for taking the time to read and comment-- and with such kind and helpful comments, as well!

Your comment, in particular about the eyes, brown and blue was very helpful, Cleo, because that is one of the only points in this poem that I struggled with. For the most part, this was one of those poems that just came rolling out of me with little to no effort. That point you mentioned gave me trouble, though, as I kept going back and forth as to what I wanted to do with it. I will keep your thoughts in mind as I revise...

About the emotional side, thank you both, because as I await the arrival of my first grandchild, I am, admittedly, VERY emotional!

My best thanks to you both,

Melinda

The Secret
(for Daniel Alan)



Hello, my little one.
I am here,
waiting to catch you in my arms,
already loving you.
Your sweet mother stands,
a timeless image, hand resting
on the fullness of you-- waiting,
and I am moved to tell you a secret...

I have known you for years upon many years;
do you see? You were in the seed within me
when I learned to breathe!
I knew you so long ago, when we were but the dust
left behind when an ancient sun went super nova!
I knew you when we were the sea
that gave birth to the rugged, rolling land;
I knew you when we became the rain
for a while and I was with you
when we once played as the wind
racing madly across a trembling sky.

I even knew you before I knew
whether your eyes were brown or blue
or bright and green as moss
or if your skin was creamy pale or a warm brown,
a gentle yellow or a deep and dusky olive.
Yes, I know you better than anything,
better than the cadence of my own breath
in and out. In
and out. And,
I knew you when the only thing
I knew for certain was that you were a force
of limitless possibilities--
and, oh, yes.

That you are loved.

I know you now,
before you have come into this world, anew,
because you are already here,
wedged firmly under my sternum and cage of ribs;
here in every beatbeatbeat of my heart,
pounding out loud the joy
of your impending arrival.
So, do you see? Don't fret!
That is the secret!
I am here, already loving you,
just as I loved you, long
before time began.

So, come on, little one, come on!
My arms are stretched out, and I am here,
just waiting to catch you.





.

Hello, Psyche! It's really nice to meet you. Your comments are all well taken and I'm pleased that you like those particular parts that you have pointed out. I like you suggestion about the comma after life itself, and will look into it when I start revisions! You have been so helpful!

I look forward to learning more about you through your poetry!

Mel

Snow, I'm gratified that those lines, ".... I realize
that there was something in you
that I did not like in myself"

touched you as they did. I loved my father with all my heart, but we had an often difficult relationship. It took my arriving adulthood and his passing to realize that one of the problems between us were that we were actually very much alike. I was my father's daughter, through and through. The realization of this and the acceptance and ultimate forgiveness is what salvaged our love in the end.

Thank you, and like Daniel, your suggestion is exactly right!


Mel

Daniel! I'm thrilled that you like this poem, it means a lot to me. And, sir, you are quite right about using 'her' rather than 'their'. Thank you for seeing what I did not!

It's really mind boggling, Liz, isn't it? You've gotta laugh or you might just cry! :) Ten years old!?!? Wow, how time rushes by! I can't wait to experience all the joys and challenges at which you've already become an expert!

So happy to hear from you! :D

Melinda

Oh, Cleo! What a mess; I sympathize! Yes, I had a bit of a chest congestion/infection before the pollen hit. The pollen just pushed it over the edge, with a big ol' kick! I use an albuterol inhaler as needed and I have a nebulizer that I use when I'm experiencing more than the usual problems. This last time, though it was determined that i actually experienced that panic attack on top of it all. I was terrified!

Ha! I've always hated taking pills, even aspirin, and now I have so many different things I must take that it is a time consuming event in the morning(plus a few at night!) I, too, don't wish to complain, but... my goodness!!

I hope you feel better soon. It really is miserable to be sick, especially, when it involves your lungs and the all too important and necessary breathing, yes?

Love and good wishes to you!

Melinda

Hi, Daniel! Thanks for the kind words, I'm feeling much better now. I see that I need to clear up a detail, however! Technically, I am not yet a grandmother as the baby isn't due until July 28th! Still, in my heart, he's already here, though in his mama. <3 I love him already!

Oh! Yes! And congratulations on your new addition!!

Raising the Dead




You spoke to me through grass and loam;
I could feel the reverberations of it in my ears,
feel it sorrowing across my skin--
an empathetic harmony ringing in my bones.

Drifting as if a ghost through this grey garden
of stones, I fill my hollow heart
with the whole of lives decomposed
to so few words:
born and died, beloved and loving,
mother, father, daughter, son--
blessed infant...
I grieve for the loss of so many worlds
other than my own.

Gliding, as if mere inches off the ground,
my bare toes tread softly on dew-sodden grass;
oh, my feet are joyful to drown!
My head brushes against the sky
and it musses my hair;
my elbows bumpety-bump against
the hours and days and years
that flow by too swiftly for the living,
though the dead are awfully generous
and don't mind their wait.
The happiness and the pain
we tend to guard so jealously in life
still pull at me with desperate hands,
sending chills all the way through
our unsettled past, but what remains
guides true to what will eventually come.

When you whispered in my ear,
I sucked in my breath-- my heart forgot its beat.
So many times before I didn't understand;
I'd get upset and not want to know, but time and loss
and life, itself
are surprisingly patient teachers.
Anger and grief eventually learn to re-shape themselves
into forgiveness and acceptance. I realize
that there was something in you
that I did not like in myself
and had to learn to love the whole of you
just as I must learn to love all of what lives on in me.

I listen, now, filled with forgiveness for us both
and only a little of that righteously inherited stubbornness.
After all, every daughter is born to trouble their father,
and, goodness, wasn't I
good at that?

Whew! I'm back at last! I had to spend a few days in the hospital, unfortunately. I have asthma, and this is pine pollen season in NC. Huge yellow clouds of it are floating through the air and covering *everything*! Anyway, it sent me into a series of serious asthma attacks that were so bad that I had an anxiety attack on top of it. (a whole new experience for me, this!) They treated me with prednisone (a steroid) which threw my usually well-controlled diabetes into dangerous levels, which they had to spend quite a long time bringing back down to normal levels.

Well, I'm at my daughter's house and finally able to get back here to say hello to old friends and one new one, (hi, Larry! It's really nice to meet you!)

Cleo, Daniel, Liz, Snow and Scott-- I remember you well from old haunts and am excited to catch up with you, again! Actually, I've been in contact with both Daniel and Scott through Facebook; it's been fun!


Thanks for the friendly welcome, guys!!!


Melinda

Hello and good tidings! I've just been invited here by JustDaniel, and old poetry friend of mine. Thank you, Daniel! Some may remember me from other forums as Serenem, or as Melinda, or as StarsailorLost. I don't have a constant internet connection, but I look forward to posting as often as I can and to becoming a part of this community. I love free verse, work very hard at it and look forward to a workshop atmosphere. I try to give as good as get, or more. I occasionally do more structured forms, but I am a novice to the extreme-- unless we're discussing haiku, which I absolutely adore.

Well, that's a start, anyway!

I look forward to getting to know all of you, and your poetry, very well!

Starsailor
Melinda