Another Kind of Birthing

Another kind of Birthing

It can happen any time—
in the middle of the night,
at high noon,
or just as
you’re sitting down
to dinner,
and your guests
are wondering
if you’re feeling ill.

It is at first
nothing more
than an uneasy
feeling in the gut
followed by
palpitations
and breathlessness—
an inability
to concentrate.

You get up,
grab paper
and a pencil,
or, depending
on the time of day
and place, excuse yourself,
and rush to a quiet corner to sit,
pen in hand, poised above the paper.

The blank sheet taunts
and teases,
until, like a bursting dam,
something happens
within the soul
and the words come tumbling
like a waterfall in flood
until the paper is filled,
and a poem is born.

Vi Jones
©May 18, 2006