AudreyGrace Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 (edited) In my AP Literature class, we just started our poetry unit. Normally, poetry does nothing for me. But something about this poem almost brought me to tears... It has to deal with a woman's decision to give her child up for adoption and the social implications of a fatherless child at the time. After reading it, all I could think of is that women need love, not abortion. When a woman is trying to decide what to do (abort the child or give it up for adoption), we must always show her love in urging to not abort the baby, because no decision will be easy for her. Here's the poem by Anne Sexton, called "Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward" [font="Arial"][size="2"]Child, the current of your breath is six days long. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]You lie, a small knuckle on my white bed; [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]lie, fisted like a snail, so small and strongat my breast. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]Your lips are animals; you are fed [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"] with love. At first hunger is not wrong.[/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]The nurses nod their caps; you are shepherded [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]down starch halls with the other unnested throng [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]in wheeling baskets. You tip like a cup; your head [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]moving to my touch. You sense the way we belong. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]But this is an institution bed.You will not know me very long. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]The doctors are enamel. They want to knowthe facts. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]They guess about the man who left me, [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]some pendulum soul, going the way men go [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]and leave you full of child. But our case history [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]stays blank. All I did was let you grow. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]Now we are here for all the ward to see. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]They thought I was strange, although [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]I never spoke a word. I burst empty [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]of you, letting you learn how the air is so. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]The doctors chart the riddle they ask of me [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]and I turn my head away. I do not know.[/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"] Yours is the only face I recognize.[/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]Bone at my bone, you drink my answers in. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]Six times a day I prizeyour need, the animals of your lips, your skin [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]growing warm and plump. I see your eyeslifting their tents. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]They are blue stones, they begin [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]to outgrow their moss. You blink in surprise and [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]I wonder what you can see, my funny kin, [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]as you trouble my silence. I am a shelter of lies. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]Should I learn to speak again, or hopeless in [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]such sanity will I touch some face I recognize? [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]Down the hall the baskets start back. My arms [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]fit you like a sleeve, they holdcatkins of your willows, the wild bee farms [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]of your nerves, each muscle and foldof your first days. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]Your old man's face disarms [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]the nurses. But the doctors return to scold [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]me. I speak. It is you my silence harms. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]I should have known; I should have toldthem something to write down. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]My voice alarms my throat. "Name of father—none." I hold [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]you and name you bastard in my arms. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]And now that's that. There is nothing more [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]that I can say or lose.Others have traded life [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]beforeand could not speak. I tighten to refuse [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]your owling eyes, my fragile visitor.I touch [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]your cheeks, like flowers. You bruise [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]against me. We unlearn. I am a shore [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]rocking you off. You break from me. I choose [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]your only way, my small inheritorand hand you off, trembling the selves we lose. [/size][/font] [font="Arial"] [/font] [font="Arial"][size="2"]Go child, who is my sin and nothing more. What really got me was the bond that was made between her and her baby before she said goodbye one last time. Reading of how a mother and child are so connected made me look at abortion in a whole new light- it's not just ending a life, it's ending a one-of-a-kind relationship. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for all mothers and their children, born and unborn. [/size][/font] Edited January 18, 2011 by AudreyGrace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dara Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Terrible and beautiful at the same time. I pray for babies threatened by abortion and for their mothers to have a change of heart daily, but this is an entirely different kind of pain and despair. I will add the mothers who (have to) give their babies up for adoption to my daily prayers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest St.GiannaMolla Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 This is a sad poem. Abortion is 100% preventable and the solution is simple. The solution is repect for women. "Behind every abortion is a man who lusts" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chamomile Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Sometimes I think we in the pro-life movement say things like, "Why don't they just give up their baby for adoption instead of aborting?" And it is an obvious choice - life or death - but I don't know how deeply we consider the difficulty and pain in this decision. Maybe the reason so few women choose birth and adoption in comparison to abortion is because we're failing to recognize the pain a woman knows she will feel when that moment of separation happens. It's a huge sacrifice, even if you know you're completely incapable of caring for someone else. Sometimes it's easier, on the surface, to deny you're carrying a life within in you then to carry that life for nine months and then give that child away... at least, this is my interpretation of how a woman thinks who chooses abortion over adoption. [quote name='AudreyGrace' timestamp='1295384716' post='2201519'] Go child, who is my sin and nothing more. [/quote] That breaks my heart. That's the voice of complete despair. Anne Sexton was very troubled and committed suicide. I pray that this poem doesn't encourage women in a crisis pregnancy to choose abortion over adoption because of the pain and sadness she conveyed in it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudreyGrace Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 [quote name='Chamomile' timestamp='1296395655' post='2206679'] Sometimes I think we in the pro-life movement say things like, "Why don't they just give up their baby for adoption instead of aborting?" And it is an obvious choice - life or death - but I don't know how deeply we consider the difficulty and pain in this decision. [/quote] Yes. This is what made the poem so emotional for me to read. I never thought about it as being a decision that can be just as difficult as an abortion for many women. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyWilliams Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 I truly feel sorry for the woman who gets pregnant and has to choose whether or not to abort the child or let the child live and give him/her up for adoption. That must be a very difficult decision. However, we all know that the best decision is to give the child up for adoption. Yes, a mother who gets pregnant and doesn't want to be pregnant is going to go through a lot of emotional turmoil herself in all likelihood. It would undoubtedly be difficult to give up your very own child when you know it is your child that you have carried for nine months. To separate yourself from your very own child who carries some of your own DNA must be incredibly difficult. I don't know much about the process of adoption but I hope and pray that women who do choose to let their child live and then give it up for adoption have some sort of support after her and her child is separated. The mother needs some kind of counseling or something. I think that the mother should definitely also be encouraged to pray and to develop a relationship with God. By saying that she needs to develop a relationship with God I am not saying that she needs to "get saved" as an evangelical would say. I am just saying that if the woman does not currently have a prayer life, she should develop one. A Catholic priest would be willing to counsel a woman who has gone through such a thing I am sure. Women who give their child up for adoption need to know that God is love and mercy. They need to know that He cares. I think we should reach out to women who give their child up for adoption just as much as we reach out to those who are seeking an abortion or who have already had an abortion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmotherofpirl Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 With today's open adoptions a birth mother can actually help choose her baby's new parents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chamomile Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 [quote name='cmotherofpirl' timestamp='1299860278' post='2220099'] With today's open adoptions a birth mother can actually help choose her baby's new parents. [/quote] Yeah... and there are some really great Christian adoption agencies that will help everyone involved - on all different levels (emotionally, materially, spiritually, etc)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elizabeth09 Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Really sad poem. That remind me about the sticker that I saw that goes something like this "Abortion just gives doctors to kill". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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