A sculpture by Henry Moore

Henry Moore (1898 - 1986): 

Large Upright Internal External Form 1981-2

Womb, coffin, embracing arms, protecting, foetus, man-to-be inside the parent, woman-to-be inside the parent, double womb, phallic and vulvic interwoven, cycle of life, conception, birth, death, renewal, eternal dance of being and becoming, nurturing, containing, love, child, love making, cycle of the child becoming in their turn the parent, enclosing, enwrapping, enveloping, procreative, fertility, fecundity.

There in all seasons, in all winds and weathers, in light and in dark, in moonlight, in starlight, frost rimed, mist wreathed, sun backed, wind whipped, rain lashed.

And the sheep graze and walk on.

I passing by on a summer's day with one I love, she saying some words, I others. I could see both the womb and the coffin, she only the womb. The sculpture's shadow now playing in my mind, it enigma's and ambiguities.