The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 7/13/08 (warning: graphic language)

[BlueIris]

"The Moment the Two Worlds Meet"

That's the moment I always think of—when the
slick, whole body comes out of me,
when they pull it out, not pull it but steady it
as it pushes forth, not catch it but keep their
hands under it as it pulses out,
they are the first to touch it,
and it shines, it glistens with the thick liquid on it.
That's the moment, while it's sliding, the limbs
compressed close to the body, the arms
bent like a crab's rosy legs, the
thighs closely packed plums in heavy syrup, the
legs folded like the white wings of a chicken—
that is the center of life, that moment when the
juiced, bluish sphere of the baby is
sliding between the two worlds,
wet, like sex, it is sex,
it is my life opening back and back
as you'd strip the reed from the bud, not strip it but
watch it thrust so it peels itself and the
flower is there, severely folded, and
then it begins to open and dry
but by then the moment is over,
they wipe off the grease and wrap the child in a blanket and
hand it to you entirely in this world.

—Sharon Olds

[Chan790]

1. Yay!

More Olds. I love her descriptions of childbirth...so unsentimental.

[BlueIris]

2. Yet, I think her poems about childbirth are some of the most moving about the topic,

despite the lack of sentimentality. She's the master of that paradoxical effect.

[BlueIris]

3. Kick.

[RetroLounge]

4. Ooh, nice Olds poem...

:hi:

RL

[BlueIris]

5. Just wait.

Tomorrow we move on to people who will make some of you wish for Olds.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. My dear BlueIris!

Wow, I am loving Sharon Olds!

This is so wonderful, so graphic, and yet obscure...

Transitions fascinate me, and this is a biggie!

Thank you!

:hug:

[BlueIris]

7. Can you believe Sharon Olds has essentially rejected pieces like this in recent years?

In one interview I read, she called this one in particular "overwritten" (and refused to read it to the interviewer). I mean, I know authors can lose touch with their works after a couple of decades, and "The Moment the Two Worlds Meet" (which was published in the 80s) is part of a collection alluding to events connected with the early 70s, but still. It's so great. Overwritten?! That broke my heart.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. I understand that, I think...

I look back on my earliest stuff, and I would never write things like that again...

Or use the style I had then...

Still I wouldn't reject it! It meant something to me at the time, and that's still important...

:shrug: