We Believe in the exhausted
Mothers and the frightened Children!²
Women make each other’s souls—
Learning how to make children’s Souls.³
She’s a Prophet disguised as a young mother—⁴
Veteran of the Birth of her own children.⁵
At the Center of the
Earth there is a Mother—⁶
See the entire universe
Rested at our Mother’s Feet!⁷
What’s the body of your mother?
Silver Moonlight everywhere …⁸
Motherhood was invented by
Someone who had to have a word for it
Because the ones that have the Children
Don’t care if there’s a word for it or not.⁹
Secure us in the presence of your
Motherly Loving-Kindness!¹⁰
¹ William Blake, To Tirzah
² Dorothy Allison, This Is Our World
³ Ursula K. Le Guin, Solitude
⁴ Joy Harjo, Insomnia and the Seven Steps to Grace
⁵ Laura Hershey, Petrona
⁶ Susan Griffin, Our Mother
⁷ Rupi Kaur, When My Mother Was Pregnant
⁸ Langston Hughes, Mulatto
⁹ William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying
¹⁰ Padmasambhava tr. Gyurme Dorje, The Tibetan Book of the Dead