Fire and Ice

I came across this poem by Melissa Young in a really inspiring book I'm reading about the rawness and beauty of motherhood. It's called The Mother in Me, Real World Reflections on Growing Into Motherhood.  It's a beautiful book, a must read for mom's.

Ice and Fire

 Melissa Young

Ice

A frozen landscape-

Unbending, mundane-

the sparkling, brittle surface

of my life.

I swirl beneath the rigid ice,

Soul-burning with ambition,

Breathing dreams that bubble forth

At the edges of the day.

Yet I fear the distracting cracks

And quickly snuff the flame.

The ice, you see, must safely

bear the weight

of children's souls.

They move freely above

-laugh, slide, dig, scrape-

secure in the frosty sameness.

I churn silently beneath;

waiting for the spring of agedness,

the heat of long experience,

to melt the elements of reality

into one fluid body.

Fire

Softly I blow

on the embers of self

beneath the ash

of crumbled skill,

coaxing warmth to ward

the chill of emptiness.

My children gather around,

curious to see the flame.

Tiny hands reach

toward the heat

Tinder hearts kindle

with sparks of passion and joy.

They crackle, dance.

While I,

singed by the blaze of possibility,

step back

to watch them

glow.

 

Amazing.

Here's a link to the book

The Mother in Me