61 Parenting Poem by Saiom Shriver

SUN MOON AND STARS

When we were children,
we thought
our father was the gold sun,
and our mother the silver moon.
Not til earth set and
turned away from his sun, did we see
she was all the diamond stars.

(to our mother and to yours)

PERFECT RELEASE

Mother carrying child, may your birth be as easy and without fear
as a bubbleblower stick releasing its sphere,
as the full moon rising out of the eastern sea,
as a low branch of the pear tree dropping her present
into a nest of tall grass.

ONE FATHER'S STORY

7 children
disbarred by KKK judges
before the Great War
Parkinson's
bankruptcy

during hours of despair
arms trembling he
playing solitaire

as God smashed
his dreamhouse of cards

greathearted
laughing conscious Buddha..
who need have no earthwins
to ignite
others' light


FATHER'S LAP

Like little children
crawling joyfully
on a father's lap
trustingly do
tendrils of the vine

reach out toward a fat
tree trunk of olive
ready to make grapes
of the earth of olivine

STATUES OF NONLIBERTY

Many mothers
and every tree
are statues of
nonliberty
.. rooted
by
their nurturing love

(to NL)

OUR PARENTS

They told each of us
we were their favorite..
and they told the truth
for they gave their all
to each
and sacrificed their
life for each

BABY BIRD OF HIS HEART

God entrusted
the baby bird of his heart
into the nest of his mother's
hands coupling

that with each beat
of her heartdrum she repeat
his name
and make of her nested
hands a cup ling

DESTINY'S MOTHER

Destiny's sire
is desire.
Destiny's mother
is heartfire.
****

TEACHER STARS

Clouds of emotion
have blown away
One sees and hears
the teacher stars

FOR CALVES ALONE

Cows' milk God
made for calves
The udders
of the mudders
for their babes alone
and the little calf
considers it an elixir
when he receives
mother's love
as he licks her

ANATIFEROUS

Oh anatiferous
mother duck
her presence
is ever
to her babies good luck

DROUPADI MOTHER

She gave birth to many children
and had a paralyzed husband
.. so for 5 decades
her day began at 5 and
ended at midnight

She was delirious
with a preoperation
medication
and said to her
daughter

' fill all their plates
and then we can relax'
and her daughter's
heart ached at
the reminder of how
hard her mother
worked

(Droupadi:
Arjuna's wife.. was given
an Akshaya Patra.. a vessel
which filled daily with
food for thousands..
Droupadi always ate
last because after she
ate it would empty
for the night)

TIDE POOLS

Her tide pool eyes
full of Spirit spillover

(to Eva Rohner)

SLIPPING THE BODY'S BONDS

Each takes a hand of spirit
as
I slip sometimes
the body's bonds at night
and go flying with my parents
until the first light..

MICE

Mother mice patiently weaving
such soft nests for their
babies.. out of harsh paper

CONCEIVED IN POPPIES

It bothered not the puppy
that he never knew his pappy
by whose agency he was conceived
in the bright field of poppies

After all, God was his father

ROBIN'S EGG BLUE

In the robin there is
no
robin's egg blue
but she is able to
capture the sky
and shellshield
her babies
with its hue

KNITTING FATHER

He felt the war
was waged against
the will of both
the agressor and victim
nation's people..
nevertheless he wrote
his son every day,
with each penned word
knitting a blanket
of protection for him
and his peers

COTTAGE ROSE

Through the windows
of the stone cottage
.. shining as lamps
..flows the soft light
into the petals of
the roses climbing
there..
like the sun glowing
in the stained glass
of a church
.. like love pouring
from the heart
and then through the eyes
of a beautiful face

(to Jan P)

UNERRANT

It seemed apparent
to the nervous parent
that his son's destiny
was as an arrow errant..

but time proved otherwise.

(to a friend of ours)

ALWAYS ONE WITH THE FATHER

Never do green spears of
corn
their quickening parental
sunlight scorn


LIFT ME UP FATHER

Lift me up, Father,
says the little boy in his
crib.. raising his arms
with his plea.
Lift me up, Father
says the old woman
in her home.. raising
her arms to her God.

ABANDONED

The mother who had given
all
to her children ingrates
rested in a nursing home..
they did not call
... she prayed for heaven's gate

(this poem is projected guilt
re the childless woman in a nursing
home the writer has not visited
often enough)

MOON SWADDLING

Moonlight covered newborn
baby seals with swaddling..
but threads of her soft beams
were given by the sun's bright gleam.

UNBURDENED TREE

Like Durga's many arms
are the strong branches of the
oak.
He hosts the flock of birds.
Their weight to him is no burden.