I want to write a poem beyond my others,
a poem that expresses all the grief to link
own loss to yours, and help all mothers
to join our loving thoughts to what I think.
As a mother I know well just how precious
our children are to us. I know my grief
that loss of parent left with me, refreshes
here, the feeling that sends real belief
its words hold her child gently in her arms
and comfort her sorrows by day, bedtime,
and always, feeling loved, safe from harms
all the many later years through her lifetime
As she guards your safety in all of these.
It's the lifelong safety Mama guarantees.
Author notes
This sonnet is written from experience, perhaps with help of my dad who has actively kept me safe since he died in 1964.
A contest entry
- The Death of My Soul Mate by BluesMan.
10000 points, ended May 5, 71 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
1 - 25 of 25
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Excellent poem
Those last two lines are so precious.
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Thank you, Ellis! Bill's little girl had lost her mother, and mourning is not easy to explain to a young child.
This is a rare event, a reply the same day it was sent! WOW!
Terry
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oh how lovely
"its words hold her child gently in her arms
and comfort her sorrows by day, bedtime,
and always, feeling loved, safe from harms
all the many later years through her lifetime
As she guards your safety in all of these.
It's the lifelong safety Mama guarantees"
a fitting tribute to all moms -
this is touching
very loving
very comforting
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Thank you for recognizing the qualities that as children, we learn, and then grown up, remember and pass on to the young.
Welcome to AP!
Terry -
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you are most welcomed
i am only saying how it makes me feel
thank you for the wlcome
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This hits a raw nerve with me here. Very beautifully-written.
Wayne Leon
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Anyone who has known loss will recognize it as you did.
It is a life-changing event. Thank you.
Terry
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great piece thanks a million for sharing
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Sory to be late replying-- It happens all the time. I've gone back five years in the archive and find comments unansweres there.
Glad you enjoyed....
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Nice expressive work Terry. I think this poem hits home as we honor Mother's Day this weekend. Good inspiring message. Thanks again for writing.
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Great to hear from you!
The timing was an unintended bonus. How fitting to honor mothers now, when all attention is directed there! One day a year.
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Yet for those who have not alienated themselves from close contact (and thus forget too much) there is trust as well as love, when remembering mothers and fathers have known us always. The good, the bad, the forgiven. Such value persists through all the days, years, lives.
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In my own case it is hard to realize I am far older now than my own parents got to be, by almost twenty years. My own mother had disappeared into Alzheimers before she was sixty, while her strong heart and healthy body lived on, without her. I feared the same fate for myself, but ALzheimer's has not caught me yet, and neither did the massive stroke that took away my father in four sad days when he was 59. He knew he was dying, cracked jokes with half his face, and did his best to comfort us.
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I had not even known how deep love is, or that it is forever ours.
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It has not faded. I will always feel the loss, especially when so many broken families surround us. Alienation in what I see as an unfortunate marriage took my oldest daughter (and granddaughter) forever away. It is hard when we have no idea how they are, nor will we ever. Worse, their lives are shallower too.
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An unexpected bonus remains: a far richer life with remaining three and their families. And I have gone on here for half a century's worth of family experience!
Time flies, doesn't it?
Terry
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It sure does Terry...sorry I did not respond to you sooner. Take care and write anytime.
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Easy to understand.
It happens to me too. Busy beyond belief, teaching, rarely writing, even more rarely competing, being all things for all people, failing. Waiting for 36-hour days.
Thanks for yours.
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Thank you Terry for this beautiful Sonnet. When Marlana is a little older and has had a little more education on poetry, I believe she will come to love and appreciate this beaautiful sonnet you have written for her.
Thank you
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Poet
As the world changes and we become less aware of what motherhood & fatherhood should be I feel such a sasdness in your words. Fornow, when anything goes, who cares?
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And that is the saddest loss of all!
What you describe has been an unstoppable decline in humanity. I have grandkids old enough to have kids of their own, and have witnessed firsthand what you say. Whatever we valued so highly in the love that binds has been replaced by the make-believe of an electronic world, where nothing is real at all. And yet-- In a saner world, where reality lives, I am convinced all is not lost.
To which some might say-- "yet."
You ask good questions.
I'll ask you one: Is this a preparation for the calamities of Global Warming, the loss of glaciers and ice caps, the huge rise in ocean water-levels and destruction of the World's major cities, regrettably most of them on the coast of continents? Where death from starvation and drowning become commonplace, not caring may become essential for personal well-being.
It makes me glad I have so few years left!
Terry
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As a mother who has met with a certain amount of heartache, I can feel the solemness of this poem, Terry.
I love my children with all my heart and would do anything for them. They sometimes don't understand where I'm coming from but that's okay... they will someday.
I may have unintentially hurt them in some ways, as they have occasionally hurt me, always forgiven. I hope they can find the heart to forgive me as well.
As Myra said in the previuos comment, it's a bond of love which cannot be broken.
Your poem is beautiful, understanding and heartfelt.
Dee
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Thank you Dee, Only in Fiction (and not even always there)
can we find what would approach perfection.
As we approached "today" the hazards grew more and more dangerous for children, and the task of protective parenting, increasingly restrictive. It is no wonder at all that family conflicts increased accordingly, often not fully understood by parents, or by kids with "difficult" playmates. Incredibly lucky are the parents today whose children understand and agree with the need for cautious safety.
My youngest "child" of four will be fifty next year, and in many ways the time of their childhood was still a gentler time, already blemished by bullying by peers, but outside the home with remarkably few clashes and problems. Cigarettes were of tobacco not drugs, nips of their dad's whisky the worst of possible addiction. The kids were safe outdoors; the worst predators were moquitoes and the black bear that ventured into town to sample the contents of garbage cans.
My own childhood in the '30's and 40's was certainly a golden time. Through all my school years, there were no teen pregnancies, and only one quiet girl got married at the end of senior year. We rode our bicycles for miles without limits and no worry for parents. I wandered alone through the woods and knew where the earliest hepaticas bloomed in spring, wild violets, large purple, and blue, medium size yellow, and tiny white with almost microscopically intricate perfection of purple lines exactly the same in them all. Bonus was where all the wild berries could be found, followed branch to branch by chickadees. Best yet, no one ever had any reason for concern.
Our youngest are products of their time, and parents provide best opportunity for learning within what is secure. The task keeps changing.
Terry
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Beautiful expression ...
of wholeness in memories of warmth and of comfort; of safety within the embrace and emotional protection of a loving mother or parent.
Mothering is one of the most beautiful gifts to mankind. Bonding in love and acceptance form an everlasting relationship, precious without any substitute.
In my work situation I saw it time and time again: a so called imperfect mother is better than NO mother at all! I saw children loved their intoxicated mother, their depressed mother, their emotionally absent mother. I saw love between parent and child that was enduring, forgiving, accepting and healing.
And all the loss suffered cannot break this bond of love.
Thank you for sharing your intense and lovely thoughts.
Love
Myra
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Lessons in Eternity.
You are so right! Can anyone be truly whole without? Parentless victims of war come to mind, never reaching full potential as persons. What is missing cripples fullness of understanding. Example:
Eternity is far more than simple endlessness of Time.
That would be a sterile emptiness of no great significance beyond its dictionary meaning. It is the quality of its content, the difference love makes in our lives, that fills the true meaning. Generation to generation bound together in mutual caring enables us to understand farther back than we know, with the assurance that a similar quality of future will provide our reason for being, as part of future lives. In spirit, love never dies. The intense pain of loss is very real, and takes over Life with its mourning, but experience tells me although loss remains, later it is tempered by gratitude for having had the privilege of what was good.
Would we otherwise even understand our personal place in Eternity?
Hmm- Where did that come from?
Terry
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beautiful
This touched me too, and is sure to affect everyone who is or had a mother. The first two quatrains introduce the wonderful message that love is eternal and mothers are with us always. The experience of loss and grief is redeemed when we can comfort others. This is a beautiful sonnet and a wonderful work of consolation for this young child. Well done and best of luck.
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Thank you M
As a mother yourself you know we share the wonder of this bond.
It provides the hidden support that lends strength to withstand all "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and gives us the assurance to be of help where it is needed. May all children know the comfort of a parent's love, and pass it on.
Terry
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Beautifully Written
When we love so fully our hearts break at any loss…we can only pass on good lessons learned by loving parents hopeful to our children of the world. Children are so precious a gift of a lifetime. I am well aware of loss for I too lost my father at a young age even though the years pass by it is his strength that resides inside my heart still, not matter the day or the hour for the rest of my life his love wraps my like the most beautiful warmth for that I am truly blessed. Your poem is a true gift you made my eyes tears for the heartfelt words were from your heart. A lovely cadence that only adds to this work .my deep thank you for such a rich gift placed in a beautiful moment.
Lady E
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You truly understand, Lady E
Thank you for telling it as it is.
Even my two youngest children fortunately still remember their grandfather who was never too tired to hoist a young one for a ride on his shoulders, or to show how to bait the hook while fishing. I never heard an angry word from him, and value the long walks we took so silently with him in the woods and hills behind our house, that rabbits and wild deer did not flee. Too young to die at 59, he lives with us still in our own attitudes, and proves that love is eternal.
Terry
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