Thursday, May 06, 2010

Poetry .. for Mom (Mother's Day 2010)

More than I could ever say

She has been a mom longer
Than she has been my mom
She had two successful trial runs
Before I came along
Even if I was her first boy
I don’t know how much she gleaned
From my two older sisters
And their care and feeding
But I do know I can’t remember a time I worried
That she didn’t know what she was doing
If she worried that worry
She never showed it to me

I didn’t always think she was right
(Although now, older, I realize she was right
Much more than I thought back then)
But, she was always still mom
I know there were times
I didn’t give her the respect she deserved
But, she still never stopped giving me love

Even though, now, as a parent myself
I know there are times I am afraid
She was fearless in my eyes
She was never afraid to correct me
She was never afraid to extol me
She was never afraid to admonish me
And she was never afraid to embrace me

As a child,
I never knew other kinds of moms existed
I thought everyone had a mother as good as mine
Now, over half a lifetime later
I can see the great and precious gift God gave to me
She will readily tell you that I was a gift from God
But she was not the sole recipient of gifts that day
God gave me the greatest mom in the world

For every time I may have forgotten to tell you
For every time we parted without hugs
For every time I could have said, and didn’t,
I love you, mom
More than I could ever say

Ron Simpson, Jr,
May 6, 2010