Michael Ondaatje is one of my favourite poets ...
This week's Poetry Thursday suggestion was a challenge to go out into the world and listen to what people are saying and I remembered this poem ... it seems like something overheard.
Bearhug
Griffin calls to come and kiss him goodnight
I yell ok. Finish something I'm doing,
then something else, walk slowly round
the corner to my son's room.
He is standing arms outstretched
waiting for a bearhug. Grinning.
Why do I give my emotion an animal's name,
give it that dark squeeze of death?
This is the hug which collects
all his small bones and his warm neck against me.
The thin tough body under the pyjamas
locks to me like a magnet of blood.
How long was he standing there
like that, before I came?
Michael Ondaatje
What was the Michael Ondaatje book you thought I'd enjoy?
ReplyDeleteI thought you might love 'Running in the Family'. :)
ReplyDeleteI love this poem...the poet as father. Galway Kinnell wrote a great poem about fatherhood, too, but right now I can't remember the name.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments on my blogs, and as you are a "no reply" blogger, I visited to tell you that I fired off a reply, only to realize that it was not going anywhere and will be returned by Mailer Daemon. :)