8 Comments
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Rebecca Cook's avatar

Ouch! Reminds me of the on-edgeness just after having a baby, how every baby in the world belongs to you in that time of heightened senses, equally to your own. Every cry in the restaurant, every little screwed up face crying for relief. Every baby is yours, every agony, every gassy smile.

jared mulhair's avatar

ah, this is a beautifully mysterious piece — brilliantly juxtaposing elements of dark and light. love!

Jed Moffitt's avatar

Susannah, what a place, what a poem...I had the same experience as Nikos below. Brought Moses to mind there at the end. The story of Moses brings to mind abandonment, and abandonment in general just stops the mind. To me there is this fine line between abandonment and the necessary moving on that happens with us and with everyone we love. With everyone period. Your poem calls it all to mind in a fairly mythical natural setting. Nicely done. Looks like Mallorca is worth a visit. Are you visiting or do you live there?

Susannah Violette's avatar

It was a holiday my parents in law paid for! Mallorca is partly a tacky horrible holiday resort but if you drive across the island it becomes gorgeous landscapes and beaches that are pretty quiet - at least when we went in spring! You have nailed the feeling I was aiming for! I heard a baby goat calling relentlessly in the mountains and it put me in mind of ‚mythical abandonment‘ or indeed an archetypal abandonment. ❤️

Jed Moffitt's avatar

Ah….lovely. Thank you for disclosing the call of the baby goat as the catalyst for the poem. Isn’t it amazing the simple small natural things we notice when we get into our best listening space as poets. Peace and good day to you.

Nikos Anagnostou's avatar

For some reason it brought the story of Moses to my mind

David Kirkby's avatar

A lovely gift of a poem - arriving just as I head into sleep….

More material for my dreams :)

Nazish Nasim's avatar

How lovely, so deeply felt and fluidly written, Susannah ❤️