Gravid: A Creative Prompt

A new meditation from Fran Gardner... "Clouds gravid with rain, foreboding. A woman gravid with child, hopeful and fearful."

Chester, Vermont. Photo by Lyza Danger Gardner

Gravid

Dark, heavy, pregnant, ponderous. 
Gravid muscles in, a big, heavy word.
Leaden and full, ready for birth, for release. 

Clouds gravid with rain, foreboding. 
A woman gravid with child, hopeful and fearful.

Gravid: a wet word: rain from the clouds, the water of birth.
Images: A ragged banner flapping in a rainy wind by a billowing sea. A deer, a goat, a badger, wild with impending birth.
Floodwaters pushing, seeking, overwhelming their banks. The dam, bursting.

Gravid: the welling up of matter, of water, of heart. 
There comes a climax. The pressure releases. 
Rain lashes the land. In the pasture, calves drop.
The battle is joined. Wild horses break free. Lovers lie tangled, satiated and depleted. 

The rush of water fills your ears,
The weight of it overwhelms you.
It’s so easy to drown.
But you are buoyant, airy and light.

Gelid and warm,
Your time is arrived.
You have been thrust
From the womb.

Open your eyes
You are in the world now.
The sky is clear,
The meadow, rain-washed.

Once again,
Over the mountains,
Clouds draw in moisture.
Build again,
Release again.

In the meadow, the deer look up,
Startled in their grazing.
But they’ve heard the rain before,
And so they wander on.

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…and the next word will be weight.

Click here to read Birth, the previous creative prompt.

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Read more from Fran at Becoming….

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