Poems for Pregnant Ladies (1978)
Poems for Pregnant Ladies (1978)
Janneli Vojta
Rare Books and Manuscripts Library: Part of the Sam Hamill Papers
PS3572.O383 P64 1978
This limited-edition chapbook chronicles the experience of one woman’s pregnancy, from conception to birth. Through her poetry, Vojta traces the growth of her child as one might a seed. She marvels at the vulnerability of her unborn child and how it develops. As the title suggests, this book of poems is not limited to one woman’s experience but rather to women's experience of nurturing and delivering life throughout time . This universal aspect is signaled by the inclusion of a traditional poem, the only one in the volume not written by Vojta, “Aztec poem to ease birth”. This poem, written and passed along in the Aztec Empire (1345-1521), compares the coming child to a pearl and a feather. Vojta transforms the metaphor to a seed, but the sentiments agree: the woman’s body is a shelter for the anticipated child. The seaming together of past and present is represented by the continuity of format within the book itself.