Friday, November 04, 2016



Why does a mother need a daughter?
Heart's needle, hostage to fortune,
freedom's end. Yet nothing's more perfect
than that bleating, razor-shaped cry
that delivers a mother to her baby.
The bloodcord snaps that held
their sphere together. The child,
tiny and alone, creates the mother.

A woman's life is her own
until it is taken away
by a first, particular cry.
Then she is not alone
but a part of the premises
of everything there is:
a time, a tribe, a war.
When we belong to the world
we become what we are.


excerpt from Poem for a Daughter by Anne Stevenson


2 comments:

Christine said...

Very moving. And there is more than one kind of daughter.

Sue Hepworth said...

Yes.x