Classic Poem

You are going to have a baby:
That is what you tell me and I listen and look at you
Do you know the meaning of that look, you new mother in this old world?
It was a daring challenge for you to issue and for me to accept,
And I repeat it to myself again and again to get its infallible measure.
It is as if a voice out of the potent silences had broken into words —
As if God had said to me: I'm going to put a new star in the sky
As if God had said to me: I'm going to make another sea for you to sail on:
As if a fresh spring was to burst through the rocks for us to drink from:
As if a virgin bible was to be opened with every phrase of it final truth.
It took me back to the emergence of suns,
It took me back to the first utterances of religions,
It took me back to earliest explorations and primary purposes.
I was present as the sower scattered the seed in the ground,
I saw the seed working its way to the harvest fulfilling the soil
Dear mother! it is no mean affair to have a baby,
No mean affair to open the divine doors again,
No mean affair to negotiate with God for this gift
Every mother is the start of the universe again,
And is again the first breath of air and the first drop of water,
And submits her life in pawn to space and time for a miracle,
And recalls to us on these nearer shores the farther treasures.
And this time it is a mother my dear friend and comrade who excites my awe,
And I go down to the ground to her and swear I honor her footprints,
And I go up to the heavens to her and swear I worship her dreamways,
And I take my place by her side espousing her motherhood,
And bring her justifying intimations from all the past of the soul.

But, you mother, my darling friend, this is not all:
I bring you love and welcome but this is not all I bring:
I also bring you warning: I am terrible, too, in stern threatenings:
And so I lead you into the shadow and tell you what the shadow comes to.
That the shadow often comes to more shadow and destroys,
That the shadow is poison and hate and disaster and propagates sorrow,
That the shadow is over you because the sun is over you and that you can escape neither,
For the mother is the mix of both and the child is the mix of both,
And no sun and no shadow can go alone, but they must be mixed right,
And I stick to it that nothing can mix them right but love —
That property cannot mix them right nor fame nor the customary splendors:
That only love can mix them right —
The love of man for man and of a man for all men:
That love alone can mix them right.
And so I say to you who are a beautiful mother and my loyal friend:
Be careful: everything tells in the weave of this strange tale:
That all your ancestors infallibly tell and all your companions tell,
That your mean thought of your brother tells and your open hand tells,
That the hard bargain tells and the jealous thought tells,
That what the father has foully done in business tells for foul in the mother womb,
That your denied loves tell for denial and your slave duties for slavery,
That the dinner you eat while others starve tells for starvation,
That all the wrong and right of the past tells, no matter how far back,
And that the wrong and right of the day you live in tells, no matter whose wrong and right,
And that your share in the social guilt tells and tells for guilt in the waiting coming child,
And that however bad it is that the bad all tells it would be worse if the bad did not all tell,
And that into the newcomer the litter of eras crowds through the channels of your transmuting motherhood,
And that the poison cannot be avoided for the food, hell for celestia,
And that the crisis gives you privileges and demands decisions,
And that though other things tell the mother you tells most of all
You are going to have a baby:
Do you hear, O suns and planets — this woman, my friend, is going to have a baby:
Do you hear, O eminent big men and women — today is your little day: this woman, my friend, is going to have a baby:
Do you hear, O arts and sciences — this is your day for going to school again: this woman, my friend, is going to have a baby:
Let everything be set aside for this crowning deed: let it occur without fault:
Let everything wait while this occurs — let the wonderful things wait for this thing that is more wonderful to occur —
While this parent blaze nurses the twinkle of its offspring.

Dear mother, my friend: the universe is ready for you: it makes your bed: it stands round to be used if you need it:
You are going to have a baby!