A Poem for Father's Day

With Father’s Day coming up I wrote a poem based on a special memory I have of arriving late one foggy night at the train station in Salisbury NC.  I was eight years old and my father had moved up to North Carolina six months ahead of Mom and I coming from our home in Mississippi.  He came to take a new job and to “prepare a place for us.”  When we arrived I stood at the steps of the train looking into the fog only to see the shadowy figure of a person standing beneath a lamp post.  The poem tells the story of what happened next.

Waiting Arms

(a poem for Father’s Day)

I looked into the fog

of unknowing

My mother’s hand holding

mine to keep

my heart from

leading me

In the dark there was

but one light

radiant but limited

in its vision

of the figure

below

Was it him, the one who

went before us

to prepare a place

But then it could be

some stranger

filled with harm

not care

Breaking away from her

grasp of me

I ran toward the

light

filled with both

fear and hope

Pleas came from my frightened

mother bidding me

to stop my

foolish journey

And I did

and an empty pause

left me alone

Then I looked toward

the shadowy light

And a distant figure

spread his arms

awaiting a child

of the night

I ran toward those

open arms

to be held with love

no longer distant

Waiting arms told

me this

was no stranger

I was in the embrace

of my father

Jody Seymour

2018

Tender Love: A poem for Mother's Day

Tender Love

(A poem in memory of my mother and in honor of all mothers)

That day you held me

wet with my tears

I begged you to not take

me to some stranger

So with needle and thread

you stitched my

bleeding knee

Now the scar so beautiful

and old reminds me

of tender love

so often given

You sang of bluebirds

flying through gardens

And tiny spiders that

climbed spouts

only to be washed away

by words and rain

You struggled with a body

that would not aide

your spirit that longed

to love and give

But the limitations of flesh

could not hold back

that tender love

One evening after yet another

feast from your table

you sat in that chair where

so many songs were sung

And while reading some book

that would never

be finished

You slipped away to another world

where bluebirds and spiders

play forever

You are missed dear mother

But O you are not

forgotten

For your tender love

resides in me

and those

I love

Jody Seymour

Mother’s Day 20`8

A Poem I wrote last year for Mother's Day

Through the Pain
(a poem of reflection on Mother’s Day)
It began with pain, that
beginning you gave
From you came that first
breath granting
new life to a
wonder filled bundle
of flesh
Tiny fingers soon reached
your way, seeking
Not knowing the pain
that sill surrounded
the moment of your
granting of life
to a child
Ahead would be days of teaching
and days of forgetting
For those of us who received
your gift
of creation
had life to live
and plans to make
and so we did
But on this day we pause
to remember your gift
You were our source made
from love and hope
and yes from pain
So thank you
as we whisper
the word,
“Mother”
Jody Seymour