by poetrybyheart.me@poetrybyheart.me
A rainy, gloomy day
Confined by social distancing
Feeling very much alone
I reached out to Margie
Who comes here once a month
To help with my house cleaning
She is coming here tomorrow
Now I have a task to do
Cardboard boxes from Amazon
Quarantining in my bath tub
Need breaking down
Cheering me with useful work
A second joy brightened me
Grandson James soon college bound
Texted me an invitation
Supper out and conversation
Wonderful way to say goodbye
We’re going Tuesday night
Good things come in threes they say
While washing dishes after lunch
Playing favorite old CD’s
I heard All The Things You Are
And traveled back to my teen years
Chills and goosebumps still intact
Being Family Grandchildren Memories Poetry Small wonders
by poetrybyheart.me@poetrybyheart.me
Gears in your mind turn
Creative thinking evolves
Your own signature
Your zest steers a path
You envision future days
My heart swells with pride
I treasure today
Creating Eggs Benedict
Simply sharing love
A Birthday Shared A Grandmother's Love Being Family Grandchildren Haiku
by poetrybyheart.me@poetrybyheart.me
A quarter century ago
My first trip to Mexico
Time-share my new husband owned
Beginning of enchantment
Modest lodgings served us well
The grounds a garden wonderland
We dined at restaurants out-of-doors
Marble floors and colonnades
Mornings poolside began our days
Songs sung in Spanish set the beat
Reached crescendo by high noon
Time for water exercises
For many years and memories
I returned on pilgrimage
To a week I lived outdoors
My lease assured me many more
This place is etched deep in my soul
Place where family came to play
Wedding vows renewed on beach
Anniversaries toasted glass held high
Cousins gathered as family
Grew to soak up loving bonds
Making memories unbeknownst
Richly blessed are we all
Slowly I became aware
Grandchildren are college bound
Sons and wives have different plans
Even I am changing
It is time to say “Adios”.
What I hold dear is in the past
I’m oddly free to venture forth
Stepping into a new river
Now I can close my eyes and see
Pacific Ocean feel the breeze
Cooling at the end of day
Calm and lovely
Aging Being Family Endings and Beginnings Poetry
by poetrybyheart.me@poetrybyheart.me
Been orbiting in circumstance of motherhood
Bound in love to three sons now adult
With wives, children, houses in their care
Problems with mortgages, lost jobs and health
Now my time to listen and support
Share my hard-earned wisdom gained
When I was fifty as now they are
This orbit an amazing gift to me
To know my sons as men they have become
To tell uncensored struggles I battled through
Reveal their parents in stark honesty
To be friends with boundaries
Love exchanged and trust secured
I’m back home my muse returned to me
Adult Children Being Family Poetry
by poetrybyheart.me@poetrybyheart.me
When Bobby was my only grandchild, he traveled to Mexico with his parents and me for Thanksgiving. Tomorrow morning very early my son Bob, daughter-in-law Linda, grandson Bobby and his brother James fly to Mexico. Bobby is a sophomore in college and his parents expect family vacations may be coming to an end. (They haven’t considered that I’m still enjoying them in whatever form they take.) My son recognized that Bobby will also be the grandchild who rounds out our years together in Mexico. James is probably the second grandchild to begin and now to end the fun. But after Bobby, five other grandchildren arrived pretty close together and we sort of lost track of things.
So, my friends, I’ll be back with new stories to tell – more memories in the making. Happy Thanksgiving!
Being Family Family vacation Mexico Thanksgiving
by poetrybyheart.me@poetrybyheart.me
We’re at it again
My dear grandson, James
We’ll cook and enjoy
Our Eggs Benedict
I’ll catch up on your news
And share some of mine
We’ll bask in the warmth
Of this special time
We’ll look forward to Mexico
Our Thanksgiving fling
A last family hurrah
We’ll remember it well
As we travel ahead
To your next birthday
A Grandmother's Love Being Family Making memories Poetry
by poetrybyheart.me@poetrybyheart.me
Clear darkness of the sky
Last night a quarter moon
Summer creatures sing a serenade
At dawn a fog rolls in
Only light the yellow beam
Shining from the hardware store
Blue water of the swimming pool
Now obscured for winter months
By tarpaulin just as blue
I welcome the change
Summer a hard and anxious time
Fear for health of son’s beloved wife
With now the worst behind
As a family they move on
Life reshaped but ever closer drawn
I return to simpler ways
Where poetry lives in daily life
And remains my nourishment
Being Family Dawn Sky Poetry View from my window Writing life
by poetrybyheart.me@poetrybyheart.me
Sometimes poetry seems to defy
Difficult moments of everyday life
Times can be raw and hard to express
Days I keep things close to my chest
Daughter-in-law tomorrow set to begin
Long months of chemo to battle breast cancer
Son and grandchildren holding up well
Support from neighbors a loving bulwark
Family draws close at tenuous time
Grateful for many who help share the load
Love, prayer and food provide nourishment
Hope for the future sustains us all
Being Family Good Neighbors Hope Poetry Prayer
by poetrybyheart.me@poetrybyheart.me
To make an end is to make a beginning
The end is where we start from
T.S. Eliot
Thanksgiving time three years ago
A sudden meltdown shock occurred
Within my gathered family
Exposing long forgotten faults
We could not comprehend
Or figure how to heal
Youngest son’s deep woundedness
Two years more time passed
Again we were together
As a family at the beach
Stroke affecting wife of eldest son
Diagnosed the week before
Yet still they joined in our midst
Received our help and warm embrace
Tomorrow’s Independence Day
We celebrate as family
Grateful that the youngest son
Will bring kids and his wife
Whose recent cancer surgery
Revealed chemo yet to come
Love will be given and received
Being Family Poetry
by poetrybyheart.me@poetrybyheart.me
One of a set that once graced our table
An elegant juice glass, emerald-green and dimpled
Now cherished remnant you are part of my morning
I fill you with water to drink with my pills
Still I remember
You were one of six glasses
There were five of us
Sipping our orange juice.
Three sons eating Captain Crunch
And we parents our oatmeal
Five glasses were scattered
Or shattered, quite disappeared
Children grew up and went on their way
Parents marriage arrived at its sad end
Yet you a single green glass survived
One crinkly green glass
You shine in bright sunlight
Years later reminder of family life
And stories passed on to six grandchildren
Who go on beyond us. I wish them each a green glass.
Being Family Family objects handed down Poetry Remnants
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