Birth Of A Human Being

My snow soul is slowly taking shape,

Falling from heaven to inherit the earth

And the family features of God and ape,

Angel out of my element from birth.

And this is me, this helpless drop of man,

This perfect mould of bud and mental,

Crawling, fight and every earthly thing.

All if it - nothing.

                               Yet I'll assert I AM

In time by striving upright endlessly,

Inherit here a kiss to milk, like grist,

The love that made me and by which I'm born;

The word that speaks its perfect mind, the fist

That grasps its imaged God, the whole torn

And bleeding web of human history.

This sonnet was written - the author's masculine mind still slightly traumatised with witnessing the full visceral glory of it - to celebrate the birth of our daughter Emma on December 28 1986.  (pictured above, 31 years and 2 months later)

It is now posted in thankful celebration of the birth of her daughter with Tony - Isla Grace Rafferty, 6.4 pounds - at 7.19 am on 21 February 2018. 

Just call me Grandpa.