Inspiration can strike anywhere any time .
For instance, this poem was born in 2010, in Dresden.
Dresden is a city in Germany, built on the banks of the river Elbe. It was surely among the World's most lovely cities. Actually, it was so beautiful it was once called Florence on the Elbe.
In February 1945, Dresden was firebombed by English and American bombers. In a few hours, the city was destroyed and 25.000 civilians killed. Kurt Vonnegut, an American writer, who lived through the bombardment and the firestorm that raged through the city, wrote his most famous book about it, Slaughterhouse-Five.
Since then, a large part of the old city has been rebuilt. Although still beautiful, I experienced a slightly unreal feeling wandering through the city. I wonder if I would have had the same feeling had I not known it was reconstructed.
Still, Dresden is well worth the visit.
Anyway, I was in Dresden, staying with a friend and exploring the city. One morning, I was sitting at the breakfast table, minding my own business, not thinking about poetry or writing. A few lines popped into my head, I began to write, and eventually, they became this poem.
The poem is about the birth of a child, told from the perspective of the mother, who is talking to her baby. Obviously, I am not a mother, not a father even. I didn’t have any friends who were pregnant at the time. Still, this poem arrived, like a baby being born from a woman not knowing she was pregnant.
Inspiration can strike anywhere any time.
I used to get tears in my eyes reading certain lines, but alas, not anymore. The poem goes like this:
Childbirth
You came from nowhere
and appeared
in my sweet womb, all new
and moved onto this earthly stage
the hour of the first dew
Through slimy corridors of flesh
and petals made of skin
Your head appeared
all squeezed and red
your little limbs so thin
your hands so small in giant hands
your eyes some skin did hide You then cried out in pain and joy
and opened them all wide
That very moment
stars did stop to answer to your call
and gathered in the skies above
your cradle, o so small
To take a peek
how love divine
took on a human form
and then went on their heav'nly ways
the angels to inform
that one of theirs
had yet moved on
to grace the earthly realm
with all the beauties angels have
bound in a human form
You laid there smiling, unaware
of all the joys you give
to creatures here and up above
to me as long I live
Many years later, I made the poem into a song. I am practicing at the moment and when I can play it properly, I will record it and you will find it on the blog in due time.