Today would have been my mom’s seventy first birthday.

Hard work, determination and positive thought are a few of the necessary life skills I managed to observe being a constant emmitance in her existence, and with it the understanding of contributing to society in a beneficial, exemplary manner.

Some of her poetry follows.

Archways

Archways

I sat on the deck.
The afternoon warmth wrapped around me,
Yet my legs unwilling to stand for long,
My arms not strong enough to help.

At the bottom of her garden
My friend worked on an archway above her gate.
She used supple new cut stems to form the arch
and vines from the same plant to weave them together.
In and out, around and back in rhythmic grace,
Her body as strong and flexible it seemed to me,
as the materials she used,
cut so fittingly from a Tree of Life.
She worked, in tune with nature,
like  the weaver birds I had watched for hours
Years back , on holiday in the country of my birth.

I was entranced then by the miracle of grass and reeds
Becoming homes to the little yellow birds
that wove safe nests
out of powerful instincts.

Now in very different circumstances
That same sense of wonder filled my heart
As the archway took shape.

She turned and smiled at me
as she added large sunflower heads
Binding them in place with more vines
” The birds love them” she said,
Providing another link between then and now.

As she moved away I looked through the archway
At the orchards beyond,
Now framed by love,
and I gave thanks for the opening of a new way of seeing.

Anne, 3 October 2014