bedtime poems

I haven't written in ages. Though there's been plenty of wonderous things to write about, I've been so busy (and still icky feeling, unfortunately), that I just haven't been able to get my head in the right place to write.

We had our sonogram, finally. It was amazing and strange, and the first time I really became aware that this little person that's growing inside of me is really something other, something that's not me. We could see little fingers, little hands moving to touch his own face. I can't help but think that this creature is learning, already. How strange it was to have a peek into this other world, one I imagine as warm and silent, though I'm told he can hear us now, may even be able to see light shining through my belly.

We've learned that he's a he, and that makes the personhood and otherness of this baby seem even more real. Those details somehow create more, not less mystery around the whole thing for me. I can't wait for us to meet.

Today I rediscovered another poem from my childhood, in this book that P. bought for the baby. It's a wonderful book-- comes with a CD which has lots of poets reading poems. I love the selection of poems there, and how much emphasis seems to be put on the pleasure of the sounds of the words. Anyway, since I know others have begun posting poems weekly, I'd just post this. It was one of my favoirte poems as a kid. I learned all of the words by heart. I found it romantic, somehow. I guess I still do.

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
Eugene Field

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe---
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!"
Said Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
As they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long
Ruffled the waves of dew.
The little stars were the herring fish
That lived in that beautiful sea---
"Now cast your nets wherever you wish---
Never afeard are we";
So cried the stars to the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
To the stars in the twinkling foam---
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
Bringing the fishermen home;
'T was all so pretty a sail it seemed
As if it could not be,
And some folks thought 't was a dream they 'd dreamed
Of sailing that beautiful sea---
But I shall name you the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed.
So shut your eyes while mother sings
Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
As you rock in the misty sea,
Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:
Wynken,
Blynken,
And Nod.