tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post6658188229943893904..comments2023-11-21T13:48:03.338+13:00Comments on Tuesday Poem: 'Joseph' by Michael WoodsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-24215021321745173552012-06-12T18:13:37.055+12:002012-06-12T18:13:37.055+12:00Loved this - very much a 'wow' poem - the ...Loved this - very much a 'wow' poem - the journeying from scientific possibility to real, and suddenly vulnerable, human being. Love the image of the astronaut exposed but also now made real.Piokiwihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06093612075587719561noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-75908470285300729252012-06-09T03:29:28.257+12:002012-06-09T03:29:28.257+12:00Thanks for all your comments - and glad that you l...Thanks for all your comments - and glad that you liked my choice this week! Mike will be very pleased that you made such connections with the poem. He's a really nice guy and a good poet. Personally I loved the layers of meaning and association in the poem - Elizabeth and JLC's evolutionary comments - Michelle and AJ Ponder's intergalactic voyaging - there's so much in it. But Kathleen Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07645566938871914385noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-72620951414669875872012-06-08T22:58:04.898+12:002012-06-08T22:58:04.898+12:00This is such a gem, and the discussion is really g...This is such a gem, and the discussion is really great to see, too. We all have our childbirth stories to tell/share, but what makes this especially strong, for me, is how it moves back and forth between talking about life at its most basic level into something so much more complex (yes, I like what Elizabeth notes too), and almost unreachable and indescribable (moons & galaxies away...). I Michelle Elvyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00503119577895402738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-73078949756922354862012-06-08T18:20:04.046+12:002012-06-08T18:20:04.046+12:00Firstly how special to have for a father one who c...Firstly how special to have for a father one who can write such a poem!<br />Reading this I am made aware of how communication has changed between the growing baby and the father. An incredible mystery made even more mysterious by glimpses of a scan. <br />It's interesting he doesn't mention the feel of the baby as it grew the movements and even the sight of hands and feet pushing at its Helen McKinlayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18429062682694815734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-66162683596882226512012-06-07T05:50:25.386+12:002012-06-07T05:50:25.386+12:00Thank goodness the poet had a chance to imagine? i...Thank goodness the poet had a chance to imagine? inquire about? the father's perspective. My first trues sense of mortality was with the birth of my first child--and without the presence of his father. I saw then how it was possible to die giving birth. Yet that isn't the burden of this poem for me. The evolutionary theme is what struck me. It's as though the father perceives what JLChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14417274472131471333noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-35998353280501780642012-06-06T20:11:20.616+12:002012-06-06T20:11:20.616+12:00This is definitely a 'wow' poem, Kathleen....This is definitely a 'wow' poem, Kathleen. I was particularly moved by the images of fossil-like, prehistoric life in the first section - plesiosaur's paddle, coelancanth's fin, etc. - followed by the futuristic space travel in the second. I thought it was so well conceived (!)Elizabeth Welshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15420253723750754324noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-24401946603175982682012-06-05T23:22:04.517+12:002012-06-05T23:22:04.517+12:00Great poem - and I agree the use of counterpoint...Great poem - and I agree the use of counterpoint imagery gave it not only a fresh flavour but an underlying sense of all those brave new world concepts we associate with space travel.AJ Ponderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15625252892255925438noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-45414037054186149722012-06-05T21:55:31.969+12:002012-06-05T21:55:31.969+12:00Thanks for all your comments - it is a love poem t...Thanks for all your comments - it is a love poem to his son. I also like the way it reminds us that things don't always go smoothly even now, though the terrors Mary Shelley faced aren't quite so pressing. I lost two grandchildren at birth, and it jolts you into the realisation that all that technology can still fail to prevent something happening. Didn't know about the Masefield Kathleen Joneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07645566938871914385noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-19653032917787725212012-06-05T12:46:30.503+12:002012-06-05T12:46:30.503+12:00John Masefield wrote a wonderful poem about his mo...John Masefield wrote a wonderful poem about his mother giving birth - and about what women generally go through to perpetuate the species -- it's a wonderful proto-feminist poem. His mother died when he was young I think, rather than in childbirth - but I might be wrong.Mary McCallumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07482261103185786111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-75208022462024004112012-06-05T12:38:36.569+12:002012-06-05T12:38:36.569+12:00Kathleen, a wonderful choice. I love the magic he ...Kathleen, a wonderful choice. I love the magic he has wrought with his images, all so apt yet making what is in some ways small and individual, also universal and cosmic--and thereby also underlying that it is not small at all...<br /><br />Ben Hur: Mary Shelley's mother, Mary Wollstonecroft, died giving birth to her, which may have made her fear that much more personal, although of course Helen Lowehttp://helenlowe.info/blog/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-37618780944955494802012-06-05T11:30:15.505+12:002012-06-05T11:30:15.505+12:00*astronaut*astronautMary McCallumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07482261103185786111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-3606140124973455292012-06-05T11:29:56.795+12:002012-06-05T11:29:56.795+12:00Such a beautiful love poem that pushes into the wo...Such a beautiful love poem that pushes into the womb - the beginnings of a person - some terrific images - 'wow' in fact - the foetus pouring its heart out to the monitor... the baby as astonaut... Thanks for much for this, Kathy.Mary McCallumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07482261103185786111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298334170177578638.post-70891669092610336862012-06-05T09:30:53.291+12:002012-06-05T09:30:53.291+12:00Really enjoyed this. Kathleen. Thanks for posting....Really enjoyed this. Kathleen. Thanks for posting. As you say, not many poems about birth are written from the father's perspective.<br /><br />In some ways, medical technology has rendered birth a safer, and yet somehow more alien, experience for both parents. At least, Dads are usually allowed to be present nowadays, unlike the days of yore when the God-Doctor called all the shots. And no Ben Hurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08367615722744097913noreply@blogger.com