Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. If your mother is alive, and close by, go visit her and give her a hug. If she is far, call her and tell her that you’re thinking of her. If your mother is no longer in this Earth, close your eyes, think of her, and let her know that she is always in your heart.
Here are five poems, by four different authors, each with his (or her) own take on mothers and motherhood.
Someone's Mother trails the street Wrapt in rotted rags; Broken slippers on her feet Drearily she drags; Drifting in the bitter night, Gnawing gutter bread, With a face of tallow white, Listless as the dead.
Someone's Mother in the dim Of the grey church wall Hears within a Christmas hymn, One she can recall From the h so long ago, When divinely far, in the holy alter glow She would kneel in prayer.
Someone's Mother, huddled there, Had so sweet a dream; Seemed the sky was Heaven's stair, Golden and agleam, Robed in gown Communion bright, Singingly she trod Up and up the stair of light, And thee was waiting - God.
Someone's Mother cowers down By the old church wall; Soft above the sleeping town Snow begins to fall; Now her rags are lily fair, but unproud is she: Someone's Mother is not there . . . Lo! she climbs the starry stair Only angels see.
My mother loved her horses and Her hounds of pedigree; She did not kiss the baby hand I held to her in glee. Of course I had a sweet nou-nou Who tended me with care, And mother reined her nag to view Me with a critic air.
So I went to a famous school, But holidays were short; My mother thought me just a fool, Unfit for games and sport. For I was fond of books and art, And hated hound and steed: Said Mother, 'Boy, you break my heart! You are not of our breed.'
Then came the War. The Mater said: 'Thank God, a son I give To King and Country,'--well, I'm dead Who would have loved to live. 'For England's sake,' said she, 'he died. For that my boy I bore.' And now she talks of me with pride. A hero of the War.
Mother, I think that you are glad I ended up that way. Your horses and your dogs you had, And still you have today. Your only child you say you gave Your Country to defend . . . Dear Mother, from a hero's grave I--curse you in the end.
If I could clasp my little babe Upon my breast to-night, I would not mind the blowing wind That shrieketh in affright. Oh, my lost babe! my little babe, My babe with dreamful eyes; Thy bed is cold; and night wind bold Shrieks woeful lullabies.
My breast is softer than the sod; This room, with lighter hearth, Is better place for thy sweet face Than frozen mother eatrth. Oh, my babe! oh, my lost babe! Oh, babe with waxen hands, I want thee so, I need thee so - Come from thy mystic lands!
No love that, like a mother's fills Each corner of the heart; No loss like hers, that rends, and chills, And tears the soul apart. Oh, babe - my babe, my helpless babe! I miss thy little form. Would I might creep where thou dost sleep, And clasp thee through the storm.
I hold thy pillow to my breast, To bring a vague relief; I sing the songs that soothed thy rest - Ah me! no cheating grief. My breathing babe! my sobbing babe! I miss thy plaintive moan, I cannot hear - thou art not near - My little one, my own.
Thy father sleeps. He mourns thy loss, But little fathers know The pain that makes a mother toss Through sleepless nights of woe. My clinging babe! my nursing babe! What knows thy father - man - How my breasts miss thy lips' soft kiss - None but a mother can.
The things she knew, let her forget again- The voices in the sky, the fear, the cold, The gaping shepherds, and the queer old men Piling their clumsy gifts of foreign gold.
Let her have laughter with her little one; Teach her the endless, tuneless songs to sing, Grant her her right to whisper to her son The foolish names one dare not call a king.
Keep from her dreams the rumble of a crowd, The smell of rough-cut wood, the trail of red, The thick and chilly whiteness of the shroud That wraps the strange new body of the dead.
Ah, let her go, kind Lord, where mothers go And boast his pretty words and ways, and plan The proud and happy years that they shall know Together, when her son is grown a man.
In closing, here is a song by one of my favorite songwriters, Paul Simon. I am not quite sure what the lyrics mean, but they do have the words “mother” and “child” so I suppose it fits for Mother’s Day.
No I would not give you false hope On this strange and mournful day But the mother and child reu-nion Is only a motion away, oh, little darling of mine. I cant for the life of me Remember a sadder day I know they say let it be But it just dont work out that way And the course of a lifetime runs Over and over again
No I would not give you false hope On this strange and mournful day But the mother and child reu-nion Is only a motion away, oh, little darling of mine.
I just cant believe its so, And though it seems strange to say I never been laid so low In such a mysterious way And the course of a lifetime runs Over and over again
But I would not give you false hope On this strange and mournful day When the mother and child reu-nion Is only a motion away, Oh, oh the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away Oh the mother and child reu-nion Is only a moment away …
(This is a reggae cover by Ziggy Marley- I thought you’d enjoy it.)
The essence of motherhood.
MOTHER POLAR BEAR AND CUBS – WAPUSK NATIONAL PARK, MANITOBA, CANADA.