A Mother Has a Mountain Inside of Her

A mother has a mountain inside of her,
but her head is above the clouds.

She must be prepared to feel the
rivers run from a collection of rain
into the sea at her feet.

A woman stretches out her clenched fist
to feel a sunbird in the pool of her hand, bathe
and then fly off.

It is important to know
when to hold onto the dirt and the root
and when to cleanse your hands in the fountain.

Birds swoop from her soul into her heart,
catching insects on summer days softened by rain.

Love is here beating upon her.

She has only to observe the threshold of her womb
to know how much love
has passed through her body.

She is a threshold of many doors
and will let the feelings find a way on
through.

Wind must usher forth the rest of it
with seeds finding a place to grow,
carrying only the burdens away.

The sky clears with high clouds cirrus
speaking of everything hopeful.

Inside of her is a place no noise can reach.

She is floating on a sea of courage
bearing her aloft.

Under water a whole world is thriving unseen,
but such seekers of silence dive into it
and come up themselves reborn,

ready for dry land once again.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Victor Carvalho Unsplash

As a Mother Comforts

I woke up in the forest
and there she was asleep in your lap,
pine resin warming the air.

The bark of every tree defined the moment
as the texture of all that falls to sleep
in the sun.

The stream did not speak of the trials
that were to come.

The light had nothing to say about
how children can be in your lap
under the trees one moment and
in many other places
traveling for the light they have lost
the next.

We can remember as if there.

It is good to feel yourself a child
in the bosom of your mother, held.

It is good to remember the arms around
and the lap that comforts.

It is good to hear the melodies that
sing over your head into sleep.

God is the Mother of our past.
God is the Mother of our future.
And here God is, in all that aches under the sun,
And here we are, at rest.

Jenneth Graser

"As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted..." Isaiah 66:13

Mother Holding Child, Platinum print, circa 1915 [Photo from the Rodger Kingston Collection]