{"id":10441,"date":"2020-05-08T20:47:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-08T20:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/?p=10441"},"modified":"2020-05-08T20:47:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T20:47:29","slug":"mothers-day-poem-by-laura-rodley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/2020\/05\/mothers-day-poem-by-laura-rodley\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother’s Day poem by Laura Rodley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It\u2019s Mother\u2019s Day<\/strong> weekend. Hope you have sunny weather ahead.<\/p>\n

How nice to open my email and receive this poem from Laura Rodley, the Massachusetts poet<\/strong><\/a> whose work is often featured here and in other places such as the New Verse News<\/strong><\/em><\/a> (where her poem Pushcart-winning poem Resurrection<\/a> appeared in 2013). She is also a freelance writer for publications such as Country Folks<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I can always count on her to give me something imagistic, evocative and full of feeling. These days we all have a lot of feelings. Thanks to Laura for sharing her work–it’s heartening.<\/p>\n

Peace, love, and solace<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mother\u2019s Day during Super Flower Moon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who I hold, just seen in pictures,
\nher hair hand-cut, bangs uneven,
\nPall Mall in right hand, drink
\nin another, black crew neck sweater
\nwhite sparkling teeth, glass bottles
\nfor the baby lined on the kitchen counter,
\nwho I hold, my mother that I do not
\nremember except for pictures, except
\nfor the ride I took on the hood of her car,
\nas she entered our long slow driveway,
\nengine warm, except for glimpses in
\nhallways of long ago houses I remember,
\nwho I hold, loved without remembering
\nthe holding, the songs, the crooning,
\nborn, without remembering the snow,
\nthe day, the pain of birth, the pride,
\nthe unlined faces smiling down,
\ngrandparents on each side, delighted,
\nwho I hold, her love of standing pines,
\nher love of the oldest sycamore trees in Delaware
\nher love of the ocean, Rehoboth, its sand,
\nreading, her love of knowledge, my brother,
\nmy sisters, my father, her love of Pinocchio,
\nour collie, her being beloved: the only daughter.
\nWho I hold on this day forth, as on all the others,
\ngive space for her to breathe, lay down
\nher burden of sorrow, who I hold,
\nthis eternity of her leaving by choice when living
\nheld no choice, no answers, how I hold
\nonto her hand, the one reaching out between,
\nwho I hold in the space between, who I hold
\nso she ascends into heaven, out of limbo,
\nmany years now, who I hold, arms around
\nthe joy of her, her face I cannot remember
\nbut in pictures, the joy of her, and us together, alive,
\nthe tightness of our bodies\u2019 bond reinstated,
\nwho I hold, in a time past grief and mourning,
\nwho I hold, as daughters do, the outlines of her hips,
\nwho I hold, as children do, onto her hand, hoping,
\nwho I hold, giving back what I was given: my life.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Laura Rodley, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Mother\u2019s Day weekend. Hope you have sunny weather ahead. How nice to open my email and receive this poem from Laura Rodley, the Massachusetts poet whose work is often featured here and in other places such as the New Verse News (where her poem Pushcart-winning poem Resurrection appeared in 2013). She is also a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,2549,127,2666,12,280,649,205,3104,2133,2543,2473,39,13,7,16,968,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-10441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-anthology","8":"tag-blossoms","9":"tag-contributors-2","10":"tag-country-folks","11":"tag-ellen-wade-beals","12":"tag-glimpse-of-solace","13":"tag-kiss-me-goodnight","14":"tag-laura-rodley","15":"tag-massachusetts-poet","16":"tag-mothers-day","17":"tag-mothers","18":"tag-new-verse-news","19":"tag-photography","20":"tag-poetry","21":"tag-solace","22":"tag-solace-in-so-many-words","23":"tag-spring","24":"tag-weighed-words","25":"entry","26":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10441"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10445,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10441\/revisions\/10445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solaceinabook.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}