Poet of the week

Poet of the Week no 34 goes to +Leslie Caplan for her beautiful poem entitled Birthquake~ When the Son/Sun Rises in Bali, an amazing poem about childbirth, which she compares with an earthquake, in which she not only gives birth to her son (the sun), but also re-births herself, as a "mama." Sun and Earth, this is a poem about womanhood and life.
Many thanks to Leslie for being a great member of POETS who actively supports other members with positive comments and encouragement.

~Birthquake~ When the Son/Sun rises in Bali~

Twenty-three years ago
right in this moment
I was in labor on the island of Bali
Hard-core, death defying labor
moving into my fortieth-something hour
that turned fifty-five.

In the dead of night
across the river from the village that became my home,
our placenta would be buried
next to the family temple.

Inside a dimly lit bungalow with a thatched roof
and waves of terraced emerald-blue reeds
spanning out to the mama volcano steaming through me,
I would howl,
bend,
pray,
moan,
tremor like a fault-line of birth to come.

Of unknown-ness throbbing through
the contracting of womb
that hung in the balance of life and death.

I sit here.
Remembering.
Quaking with the love and honestly,
the miracle of surviving its rite of passage.

The one that brought me my son.
Prince of my soul.
Beautiful boy now man to the marrow.

When the sun rises in Bali
in just a handful of hours,
it is and will be the fourth of October.
The day I was birthed
into a mama.

words and image ©Leslie Caplan





Special Mentions go to:

+Paul NIL 
+ken newman 
+Malay Nandy 
+Philip Verne Sturges 
+Angela Scott 
+karen hines 

for their great poetry and support of POETS. Thank you everyone, for making POETS a great community!