On the auspicious occasion of Mother’s day, my humble dedication to the memory of my mother and all mothers who have loved their children, unconditionally, selflessly. This poem had originally been written in my blog ‘Reflections, Ruminations, Illuminations’ for the National Poetry Month in April, and here I am re-sharing it as a befitting tribute to the spirit of motherhood.
“The touch of a mother, light, feathery, dense, Encircling the night in the womb’s warm aroma”
The touch of a mother, a peck on the cheeks
Light wallowing softly in a crumpled bed,
Propping the head between pillows and arms,
Nursing the face, head, clothes up the body
Of the babe, dips her lips in succulent love.
The liquid pearl of joy, brimming,
Floating downstream.
The touch of a mother, light, feathery, dense,
Encircling the night in the womb’s warm aroma.
The touch of the mother, a slow autumnal caress
Tattered, torn, burnt out eyes, fingers, lips
Tempering the spluttering spices and oil,
The sound of footsteps, shimmering waves,
Fading, resounding, watching over the night.
The touch of a mother, gulped down deep
Bubbles up in the frothy burps of memory.
The touch of a mother, imprinted in
Unopened souvenirs, forlorn lullabies.
The dust of time upon
commonplace whispers and summoning.
Slivers of raindrops and light,
A golden glow of times gone by.
Also, dedicating a song that I had discovered some years back when I became a new mother with my firstborn, and that has been a family favorite of both my daughters and me over the years for the utter sweetness and simplicity of its lyrics.
Lopamudra Banerjee is an acclaimed author, poet, translator, editor with nine solo books and six anthologies in fiction, nonfiction and poetry. She has received the Journey Awards (First Place category winner) for her memoir Thwarted Escape: An Immigrant’s Wayward Journey, the International Reuel Prize for Translation (2016) and also International Reuel Prize for Poetry (2017) and other honors. Her poetry has been published in renowned platforms including Life in Quarantine, the Digital Humanities Archive of Stanford University. Her collaborative poetry collection with Priscilla Rice titled We Are What We Are (Black Eagle Books, 2022) has been 1st Prize Winner at New York Book Festival 2024 and her translation of a famous Bengali historical/biographical novel titled The Bard and His Sister-in-Law (Black Eagle Books, 2023) has received Honorary Mention at Paris Book Festival and Hollywood Book Festival 2024. Recently, her debut Bengali collection of poetry Draupadi Theke Nijoswi—Amra has been launched in Kolkata and also in the Dallas Public Library, Texas, with a performance of a psychological drama ‘Mukhomukhi’, in which she has made her foray as a playwright.
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