Hello and welcome to The Daily Poem here on the Close Reeds Podcast Network.

I'm David Kern.

I am currently on my way to a meeting and also battling some allergies.

So I'm not on the normal system.

So between that and my sniffling, my stuffed up nose, this probably won't sound

as good as normal, but I did want to still get you a poem. And as I mentioned in the last couple

episodes, I'm going to be reading poems that are about Mother's Day, that are mothers themed,

so to speak. And the poem that I'm going to read today is actually by Wendell Berry.

You know him as the author of more than 50 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He is a Kentucky

writer. I've read him on this podcast before. You've probably read some of his fiction like

Jabber Crow and Hannah Coulter. The poem that I'm going to read today is called Her First Calf. It's from his collection, The Country of Marriage. It was originally published in 1971.

So this is how it goes. Her First Calf by Wendellberry. Her fate seizes her and brings her down.

She's heavy with it.

It rings her.

The great weight is heaved out of her.

It eases.

She moves into what she has become.

Shurren her fate now is a fish free in the current.

She turns to the calf who has broken out of the womb's water and its veil.

He breathes. She licks his wet hair. He gathers his legs under him and rises. He stands and his

legs wobble. After the months of his pursuit of her, now they meet face to face.

From the beginnings of the world, his arrival and her welcome have been prepared.

...