Dear, beloved mother

For Mothering Sunday, I am reposting two poems I wrote :  the first (in 1977) was to honour my earthly mother and the second (in 2025) in honour of our Heavenly Mother. I was astonished to note the presence of the willow image in both, despite a gap of forty-eight years!

Alone sate she

Kirsty. PB c1984

Alone sate she in soft and muted shade,
A fairy child of woodland ferns and flowers,
A slender sylph from Spring's most sacred glade,
A smiling sprite of silent, scented bowers.

Her careless hair was gold as sun-gold corn,
In breeze-blessed streams and tresses lightly flowing;
Her eyes were the smiling blue of a sky-blue morn,
Her cheeks with cheerest roses ever-glowing.

Withal a shape so supple, slim and svelte
As like a willow-sapling's lithely grace;
A light and happy spirit therein dwelt,
Whose dancing smiles did play upon her face.

Upon her lap an open book she lay,
Whose lines she scanned with fond and eager gaze;
Then 'loud the alien words she 'gan to say,
In heart to grave for all her mortal days.

Alone sate she, this darling Highland child,
In woods, in fields, by many a mountain stream;
But now in time long-lived to old age mild,
Of these her girlhood joys she doth but dream.

Envoi

Learn friends, this fairest she, she is no other
Than my own dearest, sweet beloved mother.
 © PB 1977

Seeking Colloquy with Marie

The Virgin of Tenderness >12th century.

To thee Marie, divine Marie:

I fain would pen a verse to thee!

But where or whence or whither be

The theme or thought to sing of thee?

Perhaps a shelt’ring willow tree

That weeps yet gives us graces free?

Or else a lily’s purity

Whose scent is sweet sublimity?

But no, ‘tis in thine eyes I see,

As through a window wondrously,

Thy gentle soul which tenderly

Pours forth a Mother’s love for me.

Envoi

Crave of thy Son His clemency

That I a son of thine may be!

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

 © PB 2025