HOME                                      Ramblings about “Parents”

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click Title to jump to poem, Click Back arrow to return, Click Back again for HOME PAGE  

 

MY FATHERS BOOK

MY FATHER

A CHAIR IS EMPTY

HEAR ME

 

 

MY FATHERS BOOK

 

Leather covered, finger worn

          Name inscribed by hand

It holds my gaze, affects my heart

          My reverence it commands

 

Half a century it has lived,

          Kept it’s secrets well

My insides churn at what I’ll know

          Or feel when pages tell

 

I hold it close, absorb, caress

          Have him once again

Crossing time I love him now

          And lose myself in then

 

 

 

MY FATHER

 

I look into the mirror

          See a face my father wore

I look into my heart and hear

          A voice that is no more.

 

Sights and sounds of yesteryear

          A legacy of life

With love and awe my mind is filled

          With tears my eyes are rife.

 

Lessons that he taught me then

          Guide me still today

His soothing voice my ears do hear

          With me he’ll always stay.

 

I have not lived a single day

          From one that saw his passing

Without the loss I’ve deeply felt

          The memories amassing.

 

The pain I feel, the tears I shed

          From separation astound me

I cannot know, but yet I know

          He continues to surround me.

 

He is my mentor, is my friend

          His gentleness assures me

His love of all his fellow man

          A model that allures me.

 

I’ve tried to live in such a way

          The world, would better be

His principles I’ve made my goal

          We’re both anomaly.

 

What ere the world has in store

          His presence will assist me

To meet the challenge with aplomb

          With dignity, the gist see.

 

His light burns bright inside my heart

          I’ll always keep it lit

He’ll live as long as I shall live

My love will never quit.

 

The past is prologue to the future

          I have heard it said

Perhaps my children will, for me

          Feel what I, for him have said

 

But I shall love them all, regardless

          My father’s principle keeping

Until the day my thoughts do end

          And nothing’s left, but sleeping.

 

 

 

A CHAIR IS EMPTY

 

You left this world so long ago

          Never did you see

My children growing straight and strong

          Or pride of them from me

 

A chair is empty every joy

          A space unfilled, a void

Oh mother mine you missed so much

So much to give destroyed

 

My memories of you are scant

          My children’s, none at all

The gift of generations flowing

          Unable to recall

 

I need you now to hold my hand

          Be here to know my worth

Share the things that came long after

          The sons I did give birth

 

You’d be proud I know you would

          Of all that I’ve become

And smile at all your grandchildren

          A credit every one

 

Now that I have more than years

          To temper what I know

I wish you’d stayed long enough

          For the child in me to grow

 

 

 

HEAR ME

 

Fragments of your words do come

          Floating by at will

Long ago encounters stay

          Fixed within me still

 

Do you hear me oh my father

          Do I give you any joy

Am I with you in the heavens

          As your wisdom I employ

 

Do you know how much I love you?

          Though I said it not enough

Can I find a way to tell you

          You’re gifts were of the stuff

 

That gave me a direction from

          Which I never varied

Pierced the darkness with your light

          In my heart which I have carried

 

I have striven to be equal

          To the man I knew in you

To love the world as you did

          Give myself to all I knew

 

If you were here today I would

          Hug you to my chest

And tell you all the things

           I know you did invest

 

In my mind and in my heart

          That I carry with me now

Makes me a better person

          With your love I am endowed