You Begin This Way | MA Newborn Photography | Mariah Gale

You begin this way:
this is your hand,
this is your eye,
this is a fish, blue and flat
on the paper, almost
the shape of an eye
This is your mouth, this is an O
or a moon, whichever
you like.  This is yellow.

Outside the window
is the rain, green
because it is summer, and beyond that
the trees and then the world,
which is round and has only
the colors of these nine crayons.

Once you have learned these words
you will learn that there are more
words than you can ever learn.
The word hand floats above your hand
like a small cloud over a lake.
The word hand anchors
your hand to this table
your hand is a warm stone
I hold between two words.

This is your hand, these are my hands, this is the world,
which is round but not flat and has more colors
than we can see.
It begins, it has an end,
this is what you will
come back to, this is your hand.

-Margaret Atwood, “You Begin This Way”

I love that poem. Its heartbreaking simplicity carries such a profound message- that the world is so big to hold such a tiny, precious, loved life. It illustrates a parents’ job so eloquently: this is my hand, this is your hand, this is the world, this is my hand again and always. This is why we capture it.

And man, that sweet, beautiful poem made me tear up when I first read it. So, to keep things upbeat over here, here’s a song that, well,  Makes Me Happy. :)

Until Next Time,

MG