Zoodle, you're 2! (Here's a poem about you.)

Two years ago today, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning to pain...quickly followed by excitement.

Just over five hours later, we'd grown into a family of four.

Zoodle's birth was an unmedicated water birth at a freestanding birthing center. To say it was an amazing experience is to trivialize it. Recently I wanted to write a poem about that life-changing day and what it meant to me. The poem is below. (This poem is structured as a villanelle, with its specific scheme of rhymes and repeating lines.)

Birth day
by C. Beth

From water to water, from womb to breast
Indignant young cries join jubilant tears
God’s newest creation, held to my chest

You journeyed on waves of pain, every crest
Nudged you closer—pain brings joy, it appears,
From water to water, from womb to breast

“I did it!” I cry. “I passed the test!”
I kiss my reward for conquering fears—
God’s newest creation, held to my chest

“This labor,” they say, “made you tired. Now rest.”
But my soul dances to the song that it hears!
From water to water, from womb to breast!

The hours pass quickly; the sun travels west
But I’ll grasp this day to my heart, all my years—
God’s newest creation, held to my chest

Sweet son, let’s go home, settle into our nest
Where I’ll whisper joy in your perfect new ears.
From water to water, from womb to breast,
God’s newest creation, held to my chest

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.





Happy birthday, Zoodle. You bring me joy!