Two women

Poem 1:

the day i was born

not on wings
because that's a different word 
and never simple
because that wasn't to be my fate
but to my mother for sure
in a place distant from the shores 
which my soul already knew about 
and deep in the shires 
of an oxford old and sometimes wise
and then again sometimes not 
but always where i was begotten
even where more likely forgotten 
than remembered 

and although they say your birthday's yours
it ain't as far as the memory's concerned 
because way-back-then 
is much too far 
for one's adult ken to ever recall 
whether real or not 
whether unknown or set
in the stone of societal acknowledgement 
because what's yours indivisibly 
is not yours to reproduce 
and so the only thing you have to go on
is the deepest love however expressed
of the one person who'll always know

and so i reckon this thing 
and it's this thing i now wonder 
if for the rest of our lives 
it's something we strive for 
and then again
something we fail generally to achieve at all
being the return in some way 
to the womb of that woman 
who made us the man we now see 
and being something 
that some see as a beautiful attempt 
whilst others much more coarse 
choose to resist all impulses to accept 

and if i am right about this matter of mothers 
and how we must choose 
between either embracing with equal love 
or ejecting brutally from further contact 
the reality of their power 
so compassionately ceded 
and yet also seeded 
absolutely generously and fine 
to the children we grow into 
and the adults of much later ...
for it's then when we realise the truth must become us
NEVER to eject anything brutally 
in respect of the women 

who bring us ALL into a world 
we should learn to treasure much more freely 
than we have been able to do until now
because oh -- how wow! -- 
if we follow another path from this minute on
the world in so many ways
shall right itself 
like burdened vessel
no longer slumping like sad human soul
balled out by cruel words 
and embattled by selfish business models
whose only aim
is to maim our hearts 

so let's end on a high note
being that one of birth 
and motherly strengths
and the things we know 
and the things we still don't 
about how the power that is and the power that won't 
can become the power that will and the power that shall
when people like me
being humans and men 
learn to pay attention 
to the wisdoms of those 
who know much more about THAT then:
when each of us came first into this world 

---

Poem 2:

And so what follows is the poem which forms the second part of this pair. And yet another description of a powerful woman: but powerful out of measure and enquiry and love and reality, not out of an ambition where skies might acquire castles of siege-like mentalities …

11 lines of love, truly kinder

No, I'm not brave at all
But I find courage when I need to
Except in this matter 
Of expressing to the person 
I'd most give up my life for 
The reasons why that life would be worth giving up

So once again, in lines of black and white
No greys around
And no uncertainty in sight 
Here are the wherefores of my love for you:
The wherefores I find myself
Unable to ever rue

Because since we met
It's always been you 
And since we were separated 
That second time of awful pain 
And since all those words 
That indicated absolutely no more 

And no more forever 
And no more for a day
And no more for a minute 
And no chance to say 
Even so for my soul 
It's always been you 

Even so for my heart
My art has flourished broad 
And grown like an unseemly soul
Engaged not by ring
But blocked with stony stall
As if the marketplace 

Had to be my funeral pall
And yet all this time
In rhymes which I wrote I conserved my hope
That I was mistaken 
When I considered the chance 
You were my breaking-point

Instead of my making-point:
That fabulous moment in every lucky man's life
When he finds not a wife 
Or chattel to own
But rather a spirit who must liberate and free 
As everyone knows every woman must be

And so then no further 
May I avoid the subject of these verses
Because for many a long time 
The rehearsals have been in vain
And you can't say in any way 
(Not even myself in truth may I claim)

That more time is needed
In order that I clarify properly my view
About the person of beauty and grace 
You'll always be for me:
That's all it is, my dearest friend
If friend is the word I have a right to now use

Because really deep down and really profound 
All I now wish for is this:
That your indivisible rights 
To resist further furrows and fearful frowns 
Become the proudest signs 
Of your liberties unbound

---