Motherhood : Poem - The Greatest of Joys - Still, Where Does It Get Lost Or Trapped, On Its Way From Doll-House To Home?

  .... I saw, birth-givers not becoming mothers and Motherhood craving in childless arms …. 

And I wonder, where did It get trapped? 
Where? ………..? 
Where is It struggling? On its way from doll-house to home? ....

To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.

— Maya Angelou

"We are born of love; Love is our mother."

- Rumi

Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials.

- Meryl Streep

Mother is a verb. It's something you do. Not just who you are.

- Cheryl Lacey Donovan

Motherhood

I was a little more than

Five years old,

Had not started

Going to school, yet.

Everyday,

I listened to the radio,

Heard songs –

Most of them Hindi Film songs ….

And was very impressed

By Lata Mangeshkar ….

One day,

Curious,

I asked my father,

“Pappa, does Lata Mangeshkar’s daughter

Also sing so beautifully? ”

“Lata Mangeshkar

Does not have a daughter.”

“Why? ”

“She is not married.”

“So what? ” ….

I wondered !!

I had the impression that

At a certain age,

Every girl becomes a lady

And a mother,

Bearing and rearing children ….,

A phenomenon as natural

And as matter-of-fact as

Flowering of plants, trees ….

“You are a fool ! ”,

My not-so-elder,

But wise brother quipped

And unknowingly spared

Pappa’s adult answerlessness.

Later on,

I grew up,

Accumulated age,

And I saw,

Birth-givers

Not becoming mothers

And Motherhood

Craving in childless arms ….

And I wonder,

Where did It get trapped?

Where? ………..?

Where is It struggling?

On its way from

Doll-house to home?

Vanita Thakkar (12.07.2009)

 

"Mother's love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved."

- Erich Fromm

"Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws."

- Barbara Kingsolver

A mother's love liberates.

- Maya Angelou

 

© 2009 Vanita Thakkar