Poetry For Pregnancy and Motherhood
Celebrating National Poetry Day 2018, here are some beautiful poems about pregnancy and motherhood. As the great French Obstetrician Michel Odent says, pregnancy should be spent gazing at the stars and reading poetry - so here’s some perfect pieces to read and inspire your wonderful, awesome, powerful women.
Chant of the Pregnant Goddess
by Jana McCarthy
I am the mother of the moon
sister of the stars
child of the light in your eyes.
I am powerful.
The geometry of my shape shifts
from gently curved lines
to expanding circles: earth, moon, sun.
I am powerful.
I am strong.
The tempo of my vibration quickens,
increasing from
butterfly wings, to floundering fish,
to beating drum,
erupting volcano,
the rhythm as old and constant as
the cycles of the sun
and the turn of the tides.
I am powerful.
I am strong.
I am beautiful.
I hold the hope of my ancestors
the knowledge of my time
the fate of my future.
I am powerful.
I am strong.
I am beautiful.
I am mother.
Willow Tree Anonymous
I am a willow tree,
Strong, yet fluid
graceful.
I can bend with the wind,
but my roots are tough,
indestructible.
Opening to birth my child
is flowing with the wind:
from a soft and gentle breeze
to a stormy gale
back to a soft and gentle breeze.
My body is strong, but flexible.
It is my friend, it knows how to open.
I am a friend to my body
eating well, walking, and loving myself.
I shall birth safely, freely, openly . . .
among my loved and trusted ones.
I am the willow, flexible
beautiful resilient
endowed with the power of surrender
to the wind rustling through my leaves,
my branches.
My roots reach deep into Mother Earth
Anchored in Her strength
I bring forth life
In joy!
For A Mother-to-Be By John O’Donohue
Nothing could have prepared your heart to open like this.
From beyond the skies and the stars
This echo arrived inside of you and started to pulse with life
Each beat a tiny act of growth,
Traversing all our ancient shapes,
On its way home to itself.
Once it began, you were no longer your own.
A new, more courageous you, offering itself
In a new way to a presence you can sense
But you have not seen or known.
It has made you feel alone
In a way you never knew before;
Everyone else sees only from the outside
What you feel and feed
With every fibre of your being.
Never have you travelled farther inward
Where words and thoughts become half-light
unable to reach the fund of brightness
Strengthening inside the night of your womb.
Like some primeval moon,
Your soul brightens
The tides of essence
That flow to your child.
You know your life has changed forever,
For in all the days and years to come,
Distance will never be able to cut you off
From the one you now carry
For nine months under your heart.
May you be blessed with quiet confidence
That destiny will guide you and mind you.
May the emerging spirit of your child
Imbibe encouragement and joy
From the continuous music of your heart,
So that it can grow with ease,
Respectant of wonder and welcome when its form is fully filled
And it makes it journey out
To see you and settle at last
Relieved and glad in your arms.
Dawn by Jeni Couzyn
Of your hand I could say this
a bird poised mid-air in flight
as delicate and smooth.
Of your mouth
A foxglove in its taking
without edges or hurt.
This of your ear
a tiny sea-horse, immortal
sporting in white waves
and of your eye
a place where no one could hide
nothing lurk.
Of your cupped flesh
smooth in my palm
an agate on the sea-shore
of your back and belly
that they command kisses.
And of your feet I would say
they are inquisitive and gay
as squirrels or birds
and so return to your hand
and begin my voyage
around your loveliness
again and yet again
as in my arms you lie sleeping.