Night Feeding
Night Feeding
As the baby nursed,
fingers opened like petals bloomed,
coaxing the breast
as if a huge bee–the breast,
being all the baby knew while nursed,
her mother in flushed bloom.
If flesh were cloth, they would be loomed
as a single weave, the breast,
the fingers, the baby, mother, nursed,
the shuttle sighing, nursed back, forth,
the pattern resting its bloom
against night’s breast.
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Here’s a tritina of sorts (like half a sestina) for Margaret Bednar’s Play It Again Sam on With Real Toads to return to a selected archived prompt. I’ve used Kerry O’Connor’s prompt to write a flowery poem in an unflowery or uncliched way–this is rather flowery and rather a cliche, I’m afraid–but in writing it, I was also thinking of Hedgewitch’s cascade prompt–a poem with repeating lines. Repeating lines were too much for me, but this repeats words!
Essentially, I am saying that I cheated on both prompts, but since I use two–perhaps it adds up to one submission. (The drawing like the poem is mine; I’m not much good at hands; still, all rights reserved.)
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Tags: breast of night poem, breastfeeding poems, http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com, manicddaily, mother baby nursing poem, Night Feeding, Tritina
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ManicDDaily 
January 25, 2015 at 1:37 pm
This is exquisite. For me, it captures that rare, special peace of nursing a child.
January 25, 2015 at 2:08 pm
Such a milky enactment — all of nature in bloom in this miniature. Loved it.
January 25, 2015 at 2:51 pm
what tenderness.. and the picture goes so perfectly together.. I like the way you have weaved the words repeated.. to me it works well with all those little variations.
January 25, 2015 at 3:02 pm
I recall my nights of nursing & specially admire this part:
If flesh were cloth, they would be loomed
as a single weave, the breast,
the fingers, the baby, mother, nursed
January 25, 2015 at 3:14 pm
if flesh were cloth they would be loomed…smiles…really like that line…there is def a connection that happens when the mother feeds the baby…
January 25, 2015 at 8:09 pm
I have to agree – the third stanza is lovely.
January 26, 2015 at 12:50 am
… six babies – all breast fed. This is very endearing and I really love the comparison you made. So sweet… sigh.
January 26, 2015 at 3:14 am
I was never able to breast feed. This is a beautiful expression of such a precious bonding between mother and child.
January 26, 2015 at 10:29 am
Hey Susie, thanks so much. I think there is bonding in all kinds of feeding a baby. I was lucky enough to know this. Thanks for your tweet! K.
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January 26, 2015 at 8:49 am
This has a soft and peaceful feel to it, k, in part from the soft sounds of the repeating words and rhymes, but mostly because of the well-drawn images–I especially like the looming paired with blooming, and the interlocking of mother and child in one fabric of life.
January 26, 2015 at 12:28 pm
What an exceptionally beautiful poem. i remember the little hands like petals, the peaceful face. This is a connection that can only be explained in poetic terms.
January 26, 2015 at 12:35 pm
It’s not flowery! It’s tender. Thanks. 🙂
Greetings from London.
January 27, 2015 at 2:30 pm
Absolutely beautiful, as is your sketch.
January 27, 2015 at 4:53 pm
Thank you, Sherry. k.
On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 2:30 PM, ManicDDaily wrote:
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January 27, 2015 at 8:57 pm
Just gorgeous!! Causes me to want to be back to the nursing days with my two babes…bloomingly beautifully captured, K!
January 27, 2015 at 9:29 pm
Thank you, Hannah. Really enjoyed your short poems also. k.
January 28, 2015 at 8:39 pm
Thank you, K!!
January 28, 2015 at 5:04 pm
So tender and lovely.