Mother’s Milk: Reviewed and Analyzed

Rachel Hunt Steenblik, a friend I’ll refer to as Rachel for the remainder of the review, opens her book Mother’s Milk: Poems in Search of Heavenly Mother with these words: “These are the poems that I could write with my questions, my hurt, my hope, and my reaching. Others could write other poems with theirs. I hope that they will. We need them all.” This is a beautiful encapsulation of what Mother’s Milk is, what it means to me, and what it can inspire. It’s probably best if I just paste in the review I posted elsewhere here to start things off:

“A beautiful, poignant collection of poems. Frequently brought tears to my eyes with its longing and reaching for Heavenly Mother and the divine feminine. There’s a personal and intimate connection with the divine present here that may not always be what my connection is or hopes to be, but is unabashedly Rachel’s, modeling one path to strive towards the divine feminine. Ashmae’s illustrations are a perfect accompaniment for Rachel’s poetry—close, intimate, personal, and snuggly (you can almost cuddle up with them). The poems are brief snapshots, capturing moments and reworking familiar phrases, narratives, verses, ideas to include or focus on Heavenly Mother. I’m left hungry for more. I want to create & find my own connection to Heavenly Mother, to write my way there. Rachel gave me a delicious taste of that possibility here.”

I’ve read a handful of reviews of the book and they do a great job of working through what’s happening, so besides those brief comments I copied up above, I thought it would be more useful (and praising of what Rachel’s book is really doing) to do some poetry explication/literary analysis of a handful of poems that really resonated with me (I am biased since my academic training and study is in literature, but I think there’s worthwhile meat to get at).

I’ll focus on three poems (I had 18 that I initially pulled out and might revisit some of them at a later date depending on how this goes). Any thoughts here are my own interpretation of Rachel’s words and I have no idea how closely (if at all) they line up with what Rachel meant or was thinking as she wrote them. That said, here goes.

I.

“In the Beginning”

The Mother

sang a lullaby

and there was

Light. (pg43)

I love this poem. The reimagining of creation here is fascinating to me. Rachel’s putting a twist on the creation narrative from Genesis with God saying “Let there be light” and there was light. It feels significant that The Mother does not simply say the same words that God the Father utters in the traditional account. The shift from “saying” to singing is important. I love the imagery of The Mother singing a lullaby to create. The Mother is cradling the newborn Earth and sings to them and then Light is there. There’s some reminiscence of Tolkien’s account of the creation of Middle-Earth with various beings singing the world into existence (at least if my jaded, bitter memory of The Silmarillion serves me well).

The idea of singing highlights the creative efforts that are being expended. I sometimes don’t think of The Creation as a creative act, but framing song as integral to it draws attention to the creativity involved. The use of lullaby seems appropriate for Light (I’m drawn to ideas of nightlights, bedroom lamps, etc. The sort of comforting, soft, warm light that soothes you to sleep). Lullabies also feel more feminine, which I think is important in efforts to build a space for the Divine Feminine, The Mother (though not without some complications). It does strike me as somewhat interesting that singing a lullaby, a moment that traditional precedes falling asleep, is integral to the creation of Light, which I link with alertness, and waking up, the opposite of falling asleep.

II.

“What Chieko Taught Me”

The Mother’s face

is hidden from us,

because Her arms

are around us.

(Our heads rest gently

on Her shoulder.) (pg 62)

I cried reading this poem. It is beautiful. This is the first sort of explanation of why we don’t know much about Heavenly Mother that doesn’t immediately cause me to shake my head vigorously in disagreement. One reading is that the first two lines are referencing how little we know about HM; her hidden face representing our lack of knowledge. Rather than suggest that this is due to some veil to protect Her sacredness or to keep her from harm, instead this poem argues that the “invisibility” of Heavenly Mother is because we are too close to Her to see Her face, that Heavenly Mother is so involved in our lives, in helping us (“because Her arms/are around us”) that we can’t see Her.

The image of being in Her embrace is a powerful one. And I think what this calls us to do is not be fine with the lack of discussion, but to bring awareness to Her. To call attention to Her arms holding us tightly. To Her shoulder, wet with our tears. To Her hand wiping away those tears. That’s what I feel here. I think this understanding is felt throughout Rachel’s book. The poems frequently work to find and place Heavenly Mother in already existing contexts, to effectively highlight how Her arms have been around us, where they hold us, how they’ve comforted us, what work She has done while we stood by unaware.

 III.

 “In God’s House”

The front door

is wide open,

the porch full—

Mother and Father

sipping lemonade,

reading books aloud

to every child. (pg109)

This poem is gorgeous. A beautiful depiction of Heaven and the sort of after-life that I imagine. The “wide open” front door suggests a welcoming environment, an inclusive, inviting place. Playing with the cliché “our door’s always open”. That this door is not only open, but “wide open” only enhances that feeling of inclusion and openness. It feels a bit like my grandma’s house, where her door is always open, that we show up and walk in any time and there’s always food around and people doing things. Continuing the image with “the porch full” continues to build on the promise of the “wide open” front door. We see that not only are The Mother and The Father inviting, but that they are actually, legitimately welcoming and have created a space that people flock to. The fullness of the porch creates for me an image of a family reunion—cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. everywhere. A few people playing cards, some boisterous discussion to one side with the card players occasionally throwing their two cents in, the younger folks running around the outside of the porch coming in and out of sight, laughter ringing out, etc.

The poem continues this image highlighting the role of The Mother and The Father, Rachel here refers to them slightly more personally as “Mother and Father”, drawing the reader in closer to these two people. This is one of the few moments that allows us to see Mother and Father together, to see God as Them, which may be another reason I’m drawn to this poem. “Mother and Father/sipping lemonade” (I imagine in rocking chairs on the full, lively porch) “reading books aloud/to every child”. Wow. What a perfect conclusion. The casual, summer atmosphere evoked by the porch and the lemonade, combined with this idea of story and narrative through reading. There’s teaching happening. Mother and Father are storytellers, sipping Their lemonade, rocking, reading Harry Potter or Shakespeare or Dr. Seuss or LOTR or Stephen King or Austen or some poetry or comic books or whatever dusty book I just pulled off the shelf.

This is Heaven—a welcoming home, a beautiful view, a bustling porch, delicious food, books, and Love embodied.