Our Boy

It's been a while since I've posted any new poems, but let me assure you that I have been writing! I've been kept quite busy with work of different sorts, but that's not the only reason. It has actually been eight months since I last posted. It was the poem 'Her Fingers', a celebration of my amazing wife and her creativity. 

One of the reasons I have been so busy is that, for the last eight months, Silje and I have been preparing for the best of changes in our lives. We are expecting our first child, a baby boy, in time for Christmas!

As you can image this has inspired a great many poems about the prospect of fatherhood, the miracle of life, the impending responsibility,  of journeying through pregnancy with Silje, her courage and strength, our boys developing body, mind and soul, his kicking and jumping within the womb, the glimpses of his face at scans etc etc etc.

So I'm really excited to share with you one of the latest poems that I've written for our little boy, about his close arrival into the exterior world, now that we are starting Silje's ninth month. I really hope you enjoy it, and that it communicates something of the joy, excitement and anticipation that we are feeling. Thanks for reading.




Our Boy

He breathes from your lungs,
as you from our atmosphere.

He hears the heavy thudding
of your heart through the liquid.

A constant music giving rhythm
to our muffled voices.

He cries silently,
with eyes crunched like soft tissues.

He has your nose.
He has a heart that claps in swiftness.
He has a brain that recognises 
the touch of your interior.

He knows when you are sleeping,
and when I caress you both.

He is present.
He is, at present, cocooned.
He will be presently ready
to see our eyes and, 
through our gaze,
begin to understand 
who he is.

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