[stylist] poems of controversial content

[Judith Bron]

Barbara, I'm no poetry critic, but I share your sentiments.  Judith
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com>
To: <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 21, 2011 9:51 PM
Subject: [stylist] poems of controversial content


> Okay, sestinas are my newest form—along with villanelles—to master.  Do 
> you think both of these are no good or do you actually like one of them?
>  SESTINA 1
>
>
> Who thinks it's okay for partial-birth
>
> Abortions to be performed at all?
>
> It's not only just a mass of cells
>
> But a perfectly-formed baby
>
> That's growing at the half-way point;
>
> A miniature little person.
>
>
>
> Yes, a little, tiny person
>
> Who will grow and gain before birth.
>
> If you've held one you'll see the point
>
> That there's nothing to the argument at all
>
> About whether a twenty-weeker's a baby
>
> And not just a throw-away mass of cells.
>
>
>
> Sure, we all are made of cells,
>
> A cat, a flower, a rock, a person,
>
> Even if it's inside it's a baby,
>
> Just much smaller than it will be at birth.
>
> If the mothers one and all
>
> Saw sonograms they'd get that point
>
>
>
> That there's no return at any point
>
> Once the fertilized egg divides into cells
>
> That will rapidly form all
>
> Of that little person
>
> To be at birth
>
> When you finally hold that baby.
>
>
>
> After you're pregnant with a baby
>
> Is not at the point
>
> You decide not to give birth.
>
> You're not just eliminating cells,
>
> But a very tiny person,
>
> With fingers and toes and heart and all.
>
>
>
> Once, that is all
>
> I wanted--a baby--
>
> And too early that little person,
>
> Came and made the point
>
> That very soon those cells
>
> Become a miniature of the child at birth.
>
>
>
> O little person, there was never a point
>
> When all I thought you were was cells.
>
> You were always my baby, and sad was your birth.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  SESTINA 2
>
>
>
> When I think of aborting a baby,
>
> Especially after the first trimester,
>
> I think of a very tiny boy
>
> Who also knew death before life
>
> Outside of his mother's womb
>
> And not because she chose that to be
>
>
>
> But because God had a reason for it to be.
>
> O how we wanted that precious baby
>
> That took extra help to grow in the womb
>
> But by the middle of the second trimester
>
> A tangled cord took the life
>
> Of our longed-for little boy.
>
>
>
> He was a perfect miniature boy.
>
> All his parts were where they should be,
>
> He just possessed no breath of life
>
> As I tenderly held that wee baby.
>
> I know what abortions past first trimester
>
> Are removing from the womb.
>
>
>
> I didn't wish to empty the womb
>
> But he was a very wiggly little boy
>
> And at twenty weeks, in second trimester,
>
> His future, we knew, was not to be.
>
> How could you abort a baby
>
> That old and take its life?
>
>
>
> Sure, at twenty weeks life
>
> Is impossible outside of the womb
>
> But for half its gestation you've carried that baby,
>
> A perfectly miniature girl or boy.
>
> After seeing that, I wonder how it can be
>
> That you'd want to abort even in first trimester,
>
>
>
> Let alone second or third trimester.
>
> At conception is the beginning of life,
>
> Or how could that zygote come to be
>
> A growing fetus in the womb
>
> Then enter the world as a girl or boy,
>
> That long-anticipated baby?
>
>
>
> We so wanted you to be, little one in the womb,
>
> After the third trimester, the precious boy
>
> Who we could share our life, beginning as our baby.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay 
> any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose 
> any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.--John 
> F. Kennedy
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