Generation Eve
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The Strong Bond between Generations of women
“We come, literally, out of the flesh of another, and then we are held and rocked and feed and loved and taught, so that we might live. Because of our caretakers of whatever relation or gender-we may go about our days in abundance and in thanksgiving” Generations is one of the themes explored in the book “Claiming the Spirit Within: a source book of womens poetry,” edited by Marilyn Sewell. We come from generations of people, farther than our memory can take us; however, for women there is a stronger, deeper connection to our mothers, grandmother and tias. Especially when daughters become mothers, tias and grandmothers.
The bond between the generations of women is presented in the poem “daughters,” written by Lucile Clifton. The speaker expresses, “You are the arrow/ that pierced our skin/ and made us fancy women;/ my wild witch gran, my magic mama” (pg.18; lines 7-10). Many times, we portrait our grandmothers to be like witches, who have superpowers to heal, to teach, to change our lives. And our mothers as beings, who use magic to guide us in the right direction, dont matter how difficult this might be. But how else can we express the strength and abiding love that mothers and grandmothers give their daughters without using the term magic?
When the speaker is referring to her grandmother, she states, “I like to think you gave us/ extraordinary power and to/ protect us, you became the name/ we were cautioned to forget” (pg. 19; lines 12-15). The speaker believes that her grandmother gave her the power to become who she is through the lessons she taught her. The speaker is grateful for the sacrifices and protection her grandmother gave her. She can never forget her grandmothers name because she has become that name.
The bond between a mother and her child is present since conception, it increases as the baby is born and it never breaks. The poem “Collage: Mother, Daughter, Child, and Book,” written by Nancy Meanswright, is an example of that connection- the strong bond between two generations. “She sits in her grandmothers/ rocker, nursing her child her nipple is a milky peak/ that the child, full of itself,/ lets go: he sleeps now/ in a crater of her flesh”(Pg. 185; lines 1-2 and 8-12). Women have the blessing of caring a new human being inside of them for nine months, then they give birth, and automatically an unbreakable bond forms between the mother and the child. When a mother nurses her child, she is not only feeding the baby the nourishment necessary for its survival, but also she is feeding her child her love and warmth, making the connection between them stronger. Protection and love from a mother to her baby is present in the lines: “her arms/ embrace the child like planets/ circling an earth ” (pg.185;