Transfiguration: A Midwife’s Birth Poems by Jane Beal

Now available from Lulu Press,
JANE BEAL’s new poetry collection:

TRANSFIGURATION

“Jane’s perspective, from being an international midwife and a talented writer, gives rise to the absolutely beautiful poems contained in this little book. She incorporates sweetly the people she has served in her birth practice and travels. She also teaches us some midwifery along the way! Jane’s great faith in our Lord adds so much to this labor-of-love volume. I highly recommend this book. It should be in the possession of all midwives and mothers.”

Jan Tritten
Editor of Midwifery Today
Author of Birth Wisdom, Vol. 1 & 2

“Birth is sacred experience: a time when the formless takes form.  In Jane Beal’s new book, Transfiguration: A Midwife’s Birth Poems, we are taken through beautiful poetic form, closer to the spirit of birth. We feel both joy and grief. But who are we to question the ways of the spirit? As much as we try to understand birth, its mystery remains a miracle – and that is what draws us into Transfiguration.”

Cathy Daub
President of BirthWorks International
Author of Birthing in the Spirit

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A Wedding in California

Poets go on adventures.

It’s true.

I remember visiting the Château de Chillion in Switzerland, and that was a real adventure for me. I met Roshani there, and we’ve been friends ever since. Because of that meeting, I went to Roshani’s wedding, which was celebrated with two ceremonies–one for herself at the Grand Canyon in Arizona and one for her parents in New York City! Both were splendid. But back to Switzerland … Did you know that Lord Byron, the Romantic poet, was imprisoned in Château de Chillion back in the nineteenth century?

This is the same scandalous Lord Byron who fell in love with both his cousin and his half-sister and wrote, of still another cousin: “She walk in beauty, like the night, / Of cloudless climes and starry skies / And all that’s best of dark and bright / Meet in her aspect and her eyes …” When I was at the Château in Switzerland so many summers ago, I saw where Byron had carved his name in the stones of the dungeon of the castle – – an interesting place to leave a signature.

But I digress.

I was meaning to write of another adventure altogether: a wedding in California, my brother’s, in fact, which took place last week. On my most recent adventure, I escaped winter, which is desperately trying to hold onto its power over Chicago, for five or six days of spring in San Francisco. Lovely!

Among the many things I enjoyed were … sitting underneath the flowering pear-tree in my mother’s backyard …watching my dog, Joyful, play in the sunlight that never stopped shining … and walking in the hills with a full view of the waters of the Bay, everyday.

I love California. It is not just my home-state; it is like another country, within the country of the United States, and it is my country. I love it there. I always feel at home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

California is where I grew up.

It is where I will always return.

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