Mother's Day Poem: My Mother and I
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My Mother and I
The cicadas call
Rhythmic and wild.
The scent of jasmine
Dances on soft shadows.
The sliver of orange
Glows in the sky
Pure and demure
The softness of the night.
In the garden
dusted with the twinkling light
of ancient stars
My brother asleep
In my mother’s arm
Our evening ritual
As my little legs stumble
To keep pace.
Her soft voice
A song in my heart
As she recites
Chinese rhymes of old,
“In the sky a single star,
On the water, a single boat…”
Don’t remember how it ends
But the nearness of her
Clasped in my little clumsy hands
A fold of her silk pants
I'll never forget.
My mother is a poem
I'll never be able to write,
though everything I write
is a poem to my mother.
~Sharon Doubiago
They say the older you get, the more you need your mother. I can't agree more. But what if your mother is no longer here? What if she's in heaven and all you've are memories of her? A sad thought and for some of us, a reality that brings great sadness on certain occasions, especially Mother's Day. What do you do when you can't send her flowers or chocolates or tell the world how wonderful she is on facebook? What do you do when your heart aches for the physical nearness of the woman who taught you how to live the best life you can possibly live?
I don't know. But one thing I do know--she taught me the beauty of nature and the song that words can't sing. I remember her reciting poems to me when I could barely walk to keep up --the scene I try to recreate with the poem above. And in so doing, I hope to never forget--the moment when i feel that special bond with her--my mother and I. Ok, my brother was the third wheel, but still, I bet he can't remember that.
To all those of you who are mothers and who would be mothers and have mothers, happy Mother's day!
Here are some of my favorite quotes on mothers:
Motherhood is not for the faint-hearted. Frogs, skinned knees, and the insults of teenage girls are not meant for the wimpy.
-- Danielle Steel
Motherhood has a very humanizing effect. Everything gets reduced to essentials.
-- Meryl Streep
A mother understands what a child does not say.
-- Jewish proverb
There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.
-- Chinese Proverb
Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom with the dishes.
-- P.J. O'Rourke
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool mom--Author Unknown
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