Poems for Mothers

Enchanted Christmas Eve!

It was in St. Paul, Minnesota, the conservative city…
Do you remember, oh, brother, of the Christmas Eve Nights?
so magical, and eager we were?
I can still see the ornaments dangling on the tree.
Tranquility was in the house
the great sidekick of God and happiness.
…

#2382 5-10-2008 (a poem out of the 50s) of all the holidays in the year mother loved xmas the best, and she'd buy a huge tree each year at the market, and me and my brother would hall it home, and she would put all her ornaments on it, I am still surprised the tree could stand with all the weight hanging down from it.

Written to Mother

With simple wings, of magic and music,
I entered into life.
Now with gray hair how can I forgot
the silver moon in your heart.
…
#2383/ 5-20-2008

Letter from my Mother
(Letter received in Augsburg, Germany, 1970)

A letter that I was not waiting for
a letter I’ve scarcely read,
distracted me from my Army duties.
This letter from mother….the one that
occasionally comes back to mind
makes me think, now in old age,
feel insipid and shriek….
“Captain! How did you come to have this
letter you give me today?”
With her love she was trying to scold me.
This letter from her…letter that the captain gave me!
A sudden happiness filled my heart, and disdain!
More for the Captain than my mother, who asked me
to write her back, she was concerned.
Perhaps, she had a few rare doubts, in which
I might be dead, or ill, in some Army bed.
This letter from my mother that already I have
forgotten, comes to mind: she sent me orders
ay! A letter that said “Are you dead? Why don’t
you write?”
Such things we take for granted, we should not.
Forgive me so?

#2384 5-10-2008