Womb Song by Esther Vincent Xueming is a book of poems.
It opens with Turtle Song, which describes how a reptile drops 120 eggs into a sand hole and then crawls back into the sea. Its a beautiful poem.
I used to keep terrapins. They live in freshwater When they were young, their shells were dark green.
As they grew older, their shells became darker green.
In the poem #2 entitled Sea, the poet explains why she wants to love excessively. She talks about this in reference to her late dog Ealga.
In the poem #3 Grief, Esther sees the empty bed of her dog. She misses her.
Poem #4 River is like a metaphor, to describe Ealga’s physical condition, wrecked by bladder cancer.
Poem #5 Lotus Universe is tough to interpret if I don’t relay on the conventions of the lotus and its meaning.
Poem #6 Temple Vignettes is a collection of six short, free verse poems. These are a tribute to the poet’s time in a meditation retreat in Watt Prayong Gittivanaram, in 2022. There are six short vignettes on what the poet experienced during the morning, afternoon and night rituals. We learn that the walking meditation involves being mindful as we place each step and feel each step. I’m treating this collection as a single entity and calling them poem #6.
Poem #7 – The other shore
Some people, on their death beds, have talked about seeing or dreaming about the other shore, or the other side of the road. When the person is terminally ill, they may speak of seeing someone on the other side of the road, who calls out to them, to cross the road. Naturally the sickly person expresses fear at facing the unknown. They don’t dare to cross the road. They may even ask whoever they’re talking to, to cross the road for them. Death is determined for the fatally ill. No one else can take over this role.
The poet imagines how her dog Ealga, has crossed over to the other shore.
Poem #8 – Fern song is a metaphor or allegory to how we cradle and nestle our precious young, like the arrangement of the mother fern.
Poem #9 Big fish. The poet imagines herself as a big fish, lying dead in a cardboard box, packed but slowly decomposing. The fish’s spirit relives memories of “flying through the water”. It is a way of saying goodbye, before its brain rots into destruction and its spirit will be unable to remember.
By now we get it that the poet is grieving and expresses her mournful bereavement through allegories, metaphors and traditional conventions of supposed gateways where souls pass.
This volume of poetry is gentle. The free verse flows smoothly.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5 stars.
I may draw images inspired by some poems later.
To be continued soon.
Reptiles are often misunderstood, but they are amazing creatures.