The week's theme at Natural Parents Network is Parenting in Poetry and Prose, so for Wordless Wednesday over there we're sharing our poetic and prosy pictures.
I quoted part of this poem from my parenting poetry book, Poetry of a Hobo Mama,
at NPN — here's the whole poem, with some extra pictures as well.Hindsight
Did we make the right choice?
The drive in the car,
contractions bucking me off the back seat,
buckle untethered around my bulk,
pressing with all my might onto my own fist
at the small of my back.
Parking in the illegal spot in back
and wheeling in through the automatic door,
the smells hitting, that smell,
that hospital smell,
of stale and clean, boxy and blank.
The smell of empty,
the smell of bright.
The voices began,
not like the murmur of midwives,
but questions lobbing and pencils scratching
and orders barking, to me, to themselves,
and my voice ignored
like a whine by a child in the dark.
But out you came,
for out you were coming,
and I grieve for you,
that you did not have the birth I wanted,
the peace I would have wrapped for you with a bow,
the hands that would have been gentle,
the voices that would have been hushed,
the lights that would have been dim,
and the you who would have snuggled to my breast,
unaware still of that bright sterile world
beyond the calm
beyond the womb
beyond the pressure of one heartbeat
one body
who loves you.
Read more from Poetry of a Hobo Mama: The First Three Years.Find sites to link up your Wordless Wednesday post
at my super-cool collection of Wordless Wednesday linkies,
and let me know if you have one to add.
You can also link up a thumbnail from your post below!
at my super-cool collection of Wordless Wednesday linkies,
and let me know if you have one to add.
You can also link up a thumbnail from your post below!
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living. 
32 comments:
Lovely poetry! You made me cry! That's my feelings exactly about my daughter's birth experience in hospital...
Check out Dreaming Aloud for a review! http://dreamingaloudnet.blogspot.com/2011/04/poetry-of-hobo-mama-book-review.html
Amazing. Lovely post
Beautiful.
You touched me and that's hard to do this early in the morning! Blessings to you from NanaHood!
Beautiful poetry! Thanks for sharing it. It definitely reminds me of my kiddos births. We kind of had it half-way. I was at a Women's Center with my midwife. They've worked hard to make it as homey as possible, but it's definitely still bright during the birth!
Amazing series of shots. Beautiful words. What a fantastic post :)
So beautiful, Lauren.
lovely post. Happy WW!
What a beautiful story via photos. Great job documenting this event.
Simply beautiful, Lauren! Tears.
amazing photolog.....
beautiful poetry...looking forward to more!!
Unbelievably beautiful. Thank you for sharing such well written poetry and touching pictures! Have a great day!
Look at you, having a whole book of poetry! Great pictures.
Dagmar
Dagmar's momsense
Oh!
Lovely, lovely.
This is so, so beautiful, Lauren. It brought tears to my eyes. Thank you.
What a hearbreakingly beautiful poem and such great photos too!
Gorgeous poem and photos! Love it!
beautiful poem for a beautiful birth & handsome Mikko :)
Beautiful poetry and the images are amazing alongside it. Mikko has looked the same since birth! I wish you all the birth you truly desire this time around
Visiting from Natural Parents Network and Momma Jorje!
Wonderful representation of your poem. Such a sweet wish you had for Mikko. I hope you get to fulfill it for this next little one... and for YOU.
Beautiful, Lauren.
Your boy had his mama; all he needed. Pure love.
Breath taking journey, Lauren!
The mosst beautiful of moments. Its pain is forgotten when the baby comes into its mother's arms. Its joy is the best.
I love this, although it definitely makes me cry...this sums up very much of what I feel about my daughter's birth, 5 months ago, and it breaks my heart just a little...I still feel very sad that we weren't able to get the start that I'd hoped for... I wanted all that peace and calm and immediate bonding and love, but she was whisked away from me and wasn't brought back until over 30 minutes later, and I felt bewildered.
Of course, I don't know anyone else in person who understands this particular heartache...they all think I brought it on myself for even wanting a positive birth experience. Sigh...
The Story of Life! Beautiful...pain and joy...
I'm sorry you didn't have the birth you wanted, but yay for a healthy baby.
This was perfect for me to read right now. I've been struggling for a little over a month to tell our story. The story of our second birth. A homebirth turned hospital transfer. Yes, we have a healthy babe and a healthy mama, but the birth, the journey, was all wrong. I think in our world, our society, we discount the importance of that journey. Thank you for your poem, for showing me that there are others that grieve the loss, I'm grieving too. Maybe someday I'll be able to blog/talk about it...
Beautiful photos, beautiful words.
Just so you know, I was doing a Google search for "beautiful words" and this post show up at the bottom of the first page of results. Thought you might like that ;)
@Lisa C: That made my day, Lisa. :) Thank you.
@Lauren @ Hobo Mama:)
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