Ten years ago today I lost my mother to cancer, it's hard to believe that it has been 10 years already maybe because I still think about her so much and feel her around me so much to this day. My mother was a smoker for my entire life and died of lung cancer...so to my daughter and all of my friends who smoke...please stop! My mother was a talented published poet and artist, she was a perfectionist to say the least. I asked her once to write me a poem, and for my 25th birthday she presented me with the following gift of this poem.
You,
burrowed in my heart and nested there like some small snuggled swallow
My little one
I watched you spread your winds and soar...
you made me proud.
I gave you all I had to give;
A love of books, and beauty from my mother,
The spirit of adventure from your dad,
the luxury of solitude to be yourself,
the gift of tears, a curiosity for the truth,
the talent to forgive ...and to forget.
And I look at you and see the girl I never was,
the woman I had hoped to be
the mother that I should have been
Could this dead tree have brought forth such a lovely bloom?
I thank you for your gifts to me.
You are the keeper of the flame.
and like the swallow, you come back
to warm the branches of my heart.
Joan Pratt Finneran
December 26, 1925 - June 17 2001
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Your mother was very talented and her poem to you was very moving. Thank you for sharing. I wished I could have met her. Was she like you?
ReplyDeleteI miss her too sis.
ReplyDelete-Tim
What a beautiful poem and now we know where your talent comes from!
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