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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE MOTHER by JAMES OPPENHEIM

First Line: WHAT DOES THE WOMAN SING TO THE LOVE-SEED
Last Line: WHO SINGS? ... WHAT MOTHER?
Subject(s): MOTHERS;

WHAT DOES the woman sing to the love-seed under her heart?

"Oh, my beloved, unborn,
Oh, lips in the darkness that yet shall be kissing my breast:
I send my life-blood into you,
And great love upon you:
Hushed in the pool of the dark you blossom in me!

"Beloved! I make this charge upon you:
When out of my littleness you come to the sudden vastness,
And faces are about you, and cities, and the winds of the deep:
Fear nothing, baby:
My arms are there: my breasts: your mother meets you!"

Thus sings the woman: this is the song of all women:
So sang a woman to me.

@3Tides of the darkness! Cave of the midnight!
Am I still seed?
What life-blood flows through the Earth to me:
What great love is upon me:
Who sings? ... What Mother?@1



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