Mary Oliver writes to the occassion

My friend sent these words from Mary Oliver to acknowledge the mystery of birth and humanity. I like that the spirit "would rather plumb rough matter" than float. I picture Misha as a feisty little spirit. Fierce and entering the world "like a stitch of lightening." All poignant imagery to keep in mind during labor.

Poem (the spirit likes to dress up)

The spirit

 likes to dress up like this:

  ten fingers,

  ten toes,

shoulders, and all the rest

 at night

  in the black branches,

    in the morning

in the blue branches

 of the world.

  It could float, of course,

    but would rather

plumb rough matter.

 Airy and shapeless thing,

  it needs

    the metaphor of the body,

lime and appetite,

 the oceanic fluids;

  it needs the body's world,

    instinct

and imagination

 and the dark hug of time,

  sweetness

    and tangibility,

to be understood,

 to be more than pure light

  that burns

    where no one is --

so it enters us --

 in the morning

  shines from brute comfort

    like a stitch of lightning;

and at night

 lights up the deep and wondrous

  drownings of the body

    like a star.