Welcome to the March 2008 Poem of the Month.
This month’s selections hold very special meaning for me as today is Alex’s 11th birthday. I came across both of these poems recently, and have been contemplating which one I was going to send out all day. Both speak to me in different ways – one a snapshot of feeling the connectedness of parent and child as they lay outside staring up at the vastness of the universe; the other more a sidelong glimps as the parent sees a child becoming their own person. I couldn’t settle on just one, so I will simply give these TWO poems room to speak as I dedicate them to my son. Wishing you a joyous March. (Here is a link to the other poem, Orion’s Belt).
Warmest Regards,
Stewart
Judith Strasser
(1944 – 2009)
Natural Buoyancy
You were two months old
when we stood in the pool at the “Y”,
hip-deep in chlorine-heavy water
warm as a mother’s womb. We pushed
you through the ripples
coaxing, “Swim to Daddy,” “Swim
to Mommy,” trusting baby fat
and reflex to keep you afloat
and breathing properly.
Just as, when the stewardess
leads you down the jetway,
your backpack slung
over one shoulder, sporty (or
is it cool?), I picture you,
not as a shuttlecock, hurtling
toward your father through thin air
and turbulence, but more like
a kestrel, soaring, held aloft
by thermals and your natural buoyancy.
