This is another old poem but an article in our Saturday newspaper, about the ability of a mother’s voice to calm and alleviate stress (not all mothers I’m sure)prompted me to mix this recording with Pitx’s lovely ‘Little Star’.

My Mother’s Voice

She is the soothing tone of her voice
smoothing bedclothes with hands
which are never still
and when she sits
her fingers slip yarn around a needle
and knit the evenings into garments
as her voice dances its bee dance
round the honeycomb of rooms
carrying trays of light snacks
wiping dust from surfaces
until they gleam unmarked windows
to her soul.

And when she senses danger in a raised voice
she licks its anger like a wound
and coaxes it to heal
for she is the peacemaker
and her voice goes on
breaking into song -
is the harmony of wind
which rocks our family tree
in her cradle of arms
that never breaks.

(c)Deb Matthews-Zott