I’ve been working on a poem for Elisa based on a memory of when we swam tog. at a beach in Mallorca last Oct.. I think it would fit the WFOP theme of “Pathways” for the next calendar submission.
I want to give this as a “gift poem” to Elisa at some point. I was inspired by a painting at the Miller Gallery in Sturgeon Bay at a December Art Speaks session. See attached. photo.
This poem has evolved through 4 titles, I am going with “Cradle of LIfe” for now. I’d love some feedback on it. (I’m on draft number 15 —maybe more) (btw, she wears a lap suit instead of a bikini since she is pregnant.)
Cradle of Life
For Elisa
She sheds her clothes on the beach
slips into a black lap suit,
wades in past volcanic rock,
through papery seagrass
past patches of sand
swims arm over arm into turquoise,
finds cadence of breath,
rhythm to each pull of water
exhaling herself forward.
She carries a baby in her amniotic sea
swimming the life within,
her baby curled into itself.
In this hammock of sweet darkness
the symbiotic swimmer grows
to feel, to wake, to know.
Together they swim
from shore out past the point
into the vast sea
on a planet in the Milky Way
filled with galaxies of the Universe.
From the cosmos within
the baby travels the rhythm
of the mother who swims arm over arm
a journey toward arrival
cradled by the salt of the sea.
01/10/2025 a complete rewrite—about 25 times rewritten: for WFOP Cal. Pathways theme.
Symbiosis
She wades through papery seagrass,
over volcanic rock, and patches of sand.
She swims arm over arm into turquoise,
finds her cadence of breath,
a rhythm to each pull of water,
exhaling herself forward.
Her amniotic sea carries
a baby curled into itself.
In this hammock of sweet darkness,
her symbiotic swimmer grows
to wake, to feel, to know.
Mother with child glides
from shore out past the point
then swims back
Like a compass the baby spins within,
the mother reaches
on the journey toward arrival,
umbilicaled to breath,
cradled by the salt of the sea.