This last Friday of September, the Poetry Sisters called out a challenge based on Wallace Steven’s Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. I enjoy puzzling together ideas into poem forms. In the model poem, Stevens uses few words in each stanza to convey a single emotion or thought.
I became intrigued by the idea of looking at grandchildren, not a single one, but the idea of having a grandchild. I have three daughters, and have been blessed with 4 grandchildren, ranging in age from 5+ years to 21 months. Each of my daughters have had at least one miscarriage.
To write this poem, I started using sticky notes, I carried the collection around for a few days. It worked well for separating each one and arranging them into some logical order. Thanks to my Inklings’ honest feedback, I am ready to publish this poem here, but I’m not leaving it. I want to feel that it will grow as my grands grow and reveal more to me about this amazing journey in grandparenting.
Ways of Looking at a Grandchild
I.
Grandmother
Mother
Daughter
3 in 1
1 in 3
Egg to egg to eggII.
Cut the cord
connection broken
New bond forever woken.III.
Cells divide.
Divide again.
Sometimes there is no
heartbeat.IV.
The way a mother looks
at her child with purest adoration–
A bloom of a flower planted
long ago.V.
Golden curls,
crystal blue eyes–
Precious gems to hold.VI.
Hand sign
three fingers
I
Love
YouVII.
One day she’s Ariel
another Anna, Batman, Spiderman—
always a fierce girl wonder.VIII.
Whose eyes are these?
I think I know. I’ve seen them
from a portrait glow.IX.
Whispers at bedtime
“Sing me the song you sing”
A grandmother’s lullaby.X.
Curve our bodies together
and turn pages of a book,
We enter a magical place.Margaret Simon, draft
Reflections on the Teche 