Your questions about A Difficult Birth, Easter 1998<\/p>\n
To read poem click the link at the bottom.<\/p>\n
Q What\u2019s the poem about?
\nA There are 3 stories tangled up here, and you need to know them:<\/p>\n
1) 2000 years ago, the story goes, on the Friday before the day now known as Easter Sunday, Jesus was crucified, and his body placed in a tomb with a big stone blocking the entrance. The story tells that later, when people went to look, the stone had been rolled away, and the body was gone. Christians believe he had risen from the dead.<\/p>\n
2) The second story happened on Good Friday 1998. After 30 years of violence involving the Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland, with the British Army as \u2018piggy in the middle\u2019, something called \u2018the peace process\u2019 was about to be agreed in Belfast. All sides had to sign it. And they did.<\/p>\n
3) Story number three stars a five year old ewe (female sheep) who\u2019d never had a lamb. At last she was pregnant, and due to lamb at any moment. Because she was 5, which is old for a first time lambing, we were warned she might have trouble giving birth, and we might have to call the vet. The lambs were born safely, without the vet.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the poem about? The safe birth of beautiful twin lambs<\/p>\n
Q Why is she \u2018hoofing the straw\u2019?
\nA She is making a nest. You can tell the ewe is in labour when she scrapes the ground with her hoof and turns round and round to make herself a bed.<\/p>\n
Q Who are the whitecoats?
\nA Doctors, or those doctors who think they know more about birth than mothers do, and the\u2018whitecoats\u2019 symbolise know-alls who think they know better than nature does. The statement is slightly ironic, a note of caution rather than a serious condemnation of surgical intervention in birth. It is a gentle rebuke, not a condemnation of doctors, vets, or science.<\/p>\n
Q What do you mean by her \u2018opened door\u2019?
\nA The \u2018opened door\u2019 is the exit from the womb after the first lamb was born. The second twin just slipped into the straw without a hitch.<\/p>\n
Q What does \u2018the stone rolled away\u2019 mean?
\nA In a way there\u2019s a word missing in the last line of the poem. I could have written, \u2018the stone having rolled away\u2019. Sometimes I read it like that, to make the meaning quite clear, but I don\u2019t like the sound of it, and it\u2019s not strictly needed. You should read the line slowly, with the last 3 words stressed: \u2018the stone rolled away\u2019. The image connects the empty tomb on Good Friday 2000 years ago, the womb of the ewe once the first lamb is born, and the prospect of peace at last in Northern Ireland. In all three cases, life wins.<\/p>\n
Read the Poem<\/a><\/p>\n If you have any questions, e-mail them to me, I may add them to the site. Click to contact me. questions<\/p>\n Gillian reads this poem on her Compact Disc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your questions about A Difficult Birth, Easter 1998 To read poem click the link at the bottom. Q What\u2019s the poem about? A There are 3 stories tangled up here, and you need to know them: 1) 2000 years ago, the story goes, on the Friday before the day now known as Easter Sunday, Jesus… Continue reading Notes: A Difficult Birth<\/span>