Maura Harvey's Poetry   Color Memory Dancing with Daddy Destined Fifth Guitar The Gray-haired Woman Older Brother Park Scribe Sacred Breath Starfish Talents The Nest The New House Traveler Two Volcanoes Questions for Cuba Preguntas Para Cuba Home page maura@mauraharvey.com

Sacred Breath Mother of days, of deities, in the night of the sleeping soul you rest on your carpet of reptile earth while the world has turned vile and mean. Mother of daughters who will give birth to more days and more deities, Mother of small deaths, monstrous and beautiful Medusa, moribund, you await the breath of the infinite. At last your angel arrives, muse, transfigured fish, he covers you in the generous night. You receive his breath in the chastity of your age-old mouth. Your hollow chest rises, your empty womb throbs. The children that the world was yearning for awaken: the Word rides her enchanted steed; Music flutters ocean wing; Art finds its Initiate's aura; Liberty opens eyes swollen from pain; the Moon dances in a sky of vaporous waves. Your hands caress your lover's fins; the Earth erupts in a lustful sea; the Sea soars to a new universe; your captive soul is freed. Mother of Bellerophon, of Pegasus, Aphrodite, Artemis, all the constellations, all the days, Mother, calm our thirst, inspire us with your light, return to your children your art, your spirit, your peace.