Tag: Fall 2012
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Divine birth: Pegasus, born from Medusa’s blood
Pegasus, the divine, winged white horse, was the offspring of the god Poseidon and the gorgon Medusa. He was born from Medusa’s blood after she was beheaded by Perseus, arising from her head or from the blood that had seeped into the earth. Because he created the spring of Hippocrene, held sacred by the Muses,…
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Divine birth: birth of John the Baptist
In the gospel according to St. Luke we read how the aging priest Zachariah was punished with dumbness for not believing that his elderly wife would bear him a son. He regained his speech after he wrote down the predestined name of the newborn child, John. There was in the days of Herod, a certain…
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Divine birth: Athena, born from her father’s head
Athena (Minerva), the goddess of war and wisdom, had a strange birth. Her father Zeus (Jupiter) had swallowed his pregnant consort Metis (“wisdom”), because he was afraid she would bear a son who would overthrow him. Then he developed a severe headache that nothing would cure. So Hephestos, god of fire and blacksmiths, took an…
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How Gargantua was born
“Grandgousier was a jolly good fellow in his day, liking to drink as well as any man in his time, and he was very fond of salty food. . . . When he was of manly age, he was married to Gargamelle, daughter of the King of the Butterflies, a pretty wench with a good…
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Broken water
Erika L. LundgrinCleveland, Ohio, United States A young girl is sitting in the room, pregnant, water broken, waiting. I know by a quick glance in her chart that we have no information about her in the system. A good history will provide all of the important details of her pregnancy: a small challenge, one I…
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Saint Roch
Saint Roch is the patron saint of dogs, bachelors, surgeons, tile makers, invalids, and diseased cattle. He helps pilgrims and is invoked against epidemics and diseases of the skin. In the Italian Renaissance painting by Giovanni Buonconsiglio (ca. 1465, ca. 1535) he is shown in traveling attire, pointing at his plague bubo, in company of…
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In the NICU – The Tumor
Lydia Kang Omaha, Nebraska, USA Poet’s statement: “In the NICU” is a piece that reflects upon a mother’s feelings of guilt and imperfection as she holds, for the first time, her own sick infant in the NICU. “The Tumor” involves a patient’s experience of being diagnosed with a brain tumor. In the NICU A pear…
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Plaintive Music
Ron Domen Pennsylvania, United States Poet’s statement: The loss of an unborn child through miscarriage, abortion, or premature death is always a highly charged emotional event for the parents. My poem is an attempt to not only capture the emotion of such an event but also to be mindful that life is renewed. The…
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Mother’s Day is Different this Year
Diana Heiman Park Ridge, Illinois, USA Poet’s statement: Poetry writing has been a coping skill for me since I was a child. The inspiration for this poem is a recent miscarriage. Mother’s Day is different this year Early morning lump in my throat Tender breasts as I shift in my sleep Such weird sensations, could…