“Mother and Child” and “Burrowing Into Self” – two poems by Michael L. Newell

May 11th, 2023

photo via PxFuel

Mother and Child

A woman’s fingers explored
piano keys, as though bairns
plowing through snow drifts
in search of hidden life;

the dancing keys liberated birdsong
in trees just beyond her home’s windows;
a daughter sat nearby mother’s keyboard,
slowly swayed in consecrated contemplation.

Wind rose in accompaniment; music
swelled, engulfed the neighborhood.

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.
Burrowing Into Self
……………..(for Alma Peggy Newell)

In silence we find the heart, the soul,
the essence of who we are.
A bird soaring, a dolphin leaping above the sea,

a bear strolling through a wood, an owl floating
through the night are all at one
with self and surroundings.

Seated in an open field where a breeze caresses my neck,
I hear a mother call her children across road, stream,
and stand of trees, and her voice will echo for decades

while her children grow and flow across lands and time.
Listening, I discover a still center I did not know I have;
eyes close and I grow aware of one insect (which I had not noticed)

singing nearby, as my mother’s voice sings from a well deep
within my mind. Breathing slows, and each hair on head and neck shivers.
A mist covers the land. I drowse and dream.

………………..Kigali, Rwanda, Autumn 2012

previously published in the author’s book Meditation of an Old Man Standing on a Bridge (Bellowing Ark Press)

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Michael L. Newell lives in Florida. He has had seven books of poetry published in the last three years.

Listen to the 1984 recording of pianist Geri Allen playing “Mamma’s Babies” [Kontor New Media]