Last week, my wife and I were out for a walk in the park with our friends, LD and Jo, and their daughter, Gema. It was a warm evening after work and the whole neighborhood was out. Big kids playing flag football, little kids loping after ducks. At one point, Jo was carrying Gema under her arm like a football and jogging back and forth. Gema was laughing hysterically. She’s about 15 months and isn’t talking much yet. Anytime they’d stop, Gema would make the sign for please - or, I guess her version of the sign for please - swiping her hand across her belly, again and again. Please, please, please. Please one more, Mom.
Our theme this month is motherhood, that awesome state Gilda Radner called “…an act of infinite optimism.”
It’s the first full week of May and we’re hearing writing along the theme of motherhood this month. Today, Samantha Silva shares a poem by Genevieve Taggard, titled “With Child.” Born in tiny Waitsburg, Washington and raised in Hawaii, Taggard was one of the first scholars of Emily Dickinson’s work, penning an acclaimed biography of the reclusive poet in 1930. Taggard was an accomplished poet in her own right, with 13 collections to her name. She died in 1948 at the age of 53.
Something I Heard is supported by Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
