Mothers' Day & Motherhood

Oh, mother 0' mine, I was far away
In a town with only a train a day
On Mothers' Day, so I could not get
To where my arms could embrace you. Yet
You know I thought of you, all day long;
And the days of boyhood, the days of song,
The days of play, and the romp and run
From morning's light till the day was done
Almost came back to me, out so far
From the clamor and jostle and heat and jar
Of the mighty city; and with them you
Crooned a lullabye, as you used to do
When the sun went down and the stars blinked out
And I clambered up on your knees, apout
For a mother-kiss, and I thought of times
We had known toged1er, and romps and climbs;
And I thought of falls on the stones and dirt,
And of mother-kisses which healed each hurt;
And I sought a rose and I found one, white
As a mother's love, and I pinned it right
Above the heart of the little chap
Who used to snuggle into your lap;
The little chap who has grown so old
And is out so far in a world that's cold,
Just a little bit, in a careless way;
But it was not chilly on Mothers' Day;
It was filled and brimming so full of love
That I know the best of it reached above,
And rippled sweetly about the throne
Where the Omnipotent sits alone;
And all the mothers in Paradise
Were glad; and softly to Mary's eyes
The eyes of Jesus were turned, and then
He turned away, and He looked again
At the world of men; and she softly drew
His hands to her, and she kissed them, too;
Those dear, dear hands, where the spikes had hurt,
Which had clung in babyhood to her skirt;
And heaven vanished a moment then-
They were just a mother and babe again,
In the gray old world, and were glad to be!
And He was snuggled against her knee;
And Jesus whispered, and turned to smile:
" Just the mother-loving made it worth while!"

Motherhood

When the Master took the world from His lathe and He sent
it spinning along,
It swung all right and it turned all right, but still there was
something wrong;
And I think He sat with His chin in His hand and studied
it, years untold,
And tried its balance and found it good, and studied the way
it rolled;
And He mapped its course and it kept it true, as it had been
made to do,
And He gave it rainbows and flashing rain, and He gave it
stars and dew ;
And He gave it oceans with mighty tides, and He gave it lakes
and streams
And blossomed meadows, but still it came not up to His spleen-
did dreams.

And He gave it creatures to climb its hills, and birds where its
forests stood,
And then, because He had grown to love the world, gave it
Motherhood.
And then the birds in the forests sang as never they'd sung
before,
And the rivers sang and the oceans sang a song where they
met the shore ;
And a little mother, her babe in arms, sang a song that was
sweet and new,
A song of all of the dreams she'd had that her baby had made
come true;
And in her song was a love untold, a note that was sweet
and clear,
And the Master and all of the angels bent to the new-made
world to hear.

And some of her song was of sacrifice, and some of her song
was pain,
And some of her song was of star-lit skies, and of blossoms
wet with rain,
And some of her song was of swinging boughs, and some of
the skies above,
But always and ever the throbbing sweet of all of her song
was love.
And because we know of the gift which made the world take
the upward way
We set one day of each year aside, and we name it our
Mother's Day;
And we wear a rose on our heart that day for all that is sweet
and good,
And we say a prayer in our thankfulness for God's gift of
Motherhood.




jsbraza/iligan