Poem of the week: CLM by John Masefield

‘Down in the darkness of the grave / She cannot see the life she gave’ … John Masefield. Photograph: Hulton Getty

CLM

In the dark womb where I began
My mother’s life made me a man.
Through all the months of human birth
Her beauty fed my common earth.
I cannot see, nor breathe, nor stir,
But through the death of some of her.