Baptism
October 25, 2009
Writer’s Almanac, from NPR, has broken myheart and rendered me speechless, again:
Baptism by Ted Thomas Jr.
Cold wind.
I help my father
into the shower
with his good hand
he grips my arm for support.
Inside he sits like Buddha
on a plastic stool
and waits for me
to begin.
I drench him
with warm water,
soap his head, his back,
the flabby stomach,
the private parts
private no more.
I had not before seen my father’s
nakedness, nor the changing
contour of his being,
his growing helplessness.
His brown skin glistens
and I think of him
as a young man on the night
of my conception:
Panting, capable, shining
with sweat and definition,
the soft hands of my mother
grasping his shoulders.
I pat him dry,
he lets me dress him
in the white
hospital clothes,
oil his hair,
put him to bed
and forgive him.
“Baptism” by Ted Thomas Jr., from Singing With The Dead. © Moon Pie Press, 2007, Reprinted with permission. (photo source).
**I haven’t posted in quite awhile, i’m sorry. Speaking of Baptism, it’s been a month of changes and new directions for me. Nothing too drastic, but I took Tom Spanbauer’s Dangerous Writing Workshop again a few weeks ago. Three days of intense talk about writing– but this time what I specifically took away from it has made me see my book in a new and better light.
This class focused more on language– our own prose– and how to make it stronger, more meaningful, more original, more uniquely our own. Finding and cultivating our own voice.
I have a renewed sense of vigor but still lacking the time to work on the book.
Stealing bits and pieces of time here and there; sometimes just to write some notes, or character detail, or an idea for plot. I’m looking forward to my residency at Vermont Studio Center in (brrrrrr) January. One month of doing nothing else but writing.
Sigh.
Posted in 
October 27th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Love this post and the words—very good timing:)
November 9th, 2009 at 10:14 am
What a sweet poem, my, a route right back to my dad.
January will come quick Rob, then the words can flow.