April 2021
Pratibha Kelapure
pratibha.kelapure@gmail.com
pratibha.kelapure@gmail.com
Author's Note: Many poets describe their childhood when parents and grandparents sang
and read to them and around them and their world filled with the rhythms of music and words. I thought
of someone not having that kind of nurturing and how these experiences shape language development.
Sounds of Life
the music of her breath
when she sang the songs
of prayer and ancient lore
her grandmotherly chants
the mother in the rocking chair
baby swaying in the womb
eased into the birth canal
the numinous rhythms of life
dulcet notes of expressions
carrying the words that create
the language and shapes
the world into a living space
sometimes the notes sour
the rants replace the songs
the ancient lore is painful
the grandmother departed
the mother running a plow
baby pressed in the womb
forced into the clamors
of the animal squeals
the desperate sounds
her nascent world inchoate
the words that create and shape
the language incoherent
the world a hostile place
©2021 Pratibha Kelapure
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