Borta bra men hemma bäst.

Away is good but home is best.

Well, we had so many poems for Mothers’ Day, we’re revisiting today for Mothers’ Day in Sweden.  Enjoy these by bogpan (Bozhidar Pangelov), Isadora de la Vega, and Anjum Wasim Dar, along with a two of my own.  We love mom’s … which is not say, of course, that we don’t love dads.

Mother , You Are A Peace Maker’

Mother took me to a place new
unknown unfamiliar people around,
I felt afraid ,I cried, ,I held hard onto
her coat sleeve-I was pulled away

I shivered as if put in a cold water pool
Mother, for my good, left me in a school-
Mother looked down at me silently
and I pleaded silently as I looked up’

Then I saw her no more ,tears slipped
back, mind still ,thoughtless I sat on a stool
all I saw was a large blackboard, someone
tall by its side, arms moving, as if in a duel,

wearing a long straight white gown-
I just sat and looked I felt lost, my peaceful
world broke, then sounds like bells I did hear,
then dry for a while were the eyes, no tear’-

Mother Dear where are you’ I thought
I am looking all over for you’ around
and now I know that my peace is where-
in Mother’s love it is, it is in her care,

Mother please know you are the best
care taker…Mother you are the only
real peace maker’ now I am sure
Peace Can Come surely, if only, Mother is there.

– © 2017, Anjum Wasim Dar from her Peace Poems Collection 

squeezing a penny

my mother never knew the names for things
the trees were just trees, the flowers just flowers,
she knew life as a sigh and aspiration as a linchpin,
she could get to work and maneuver in the dark,
she could squeeze a penny too
and force tired feet into worn shoes

© 2013, Jamie Dedes

And let us not forget the mothers who are marginalized, have lost their children, and are in pain.

Some Mothers’ Hearts Have Stopped

Some mothers’ children stare unseeing
No sweet, wet baby kisses from blistered lips,

. . . . songs unsung

No wedding portraits to dust and treasure
No graduations or trips to the sea

. . . . just their bodies to bury

crushed
beaten
stilled

by the engine of nihilism

Limbs cracked and broken, bellies torn
Faces purpled, hearts stopped

Hearts stopped …
. . . . hearts stopped

Some mothers’ hearts have stopped

© 2015, Jamie Dedes

A homebound writer, poet, and former columnist and associate editor to a regional employment newspaper, my work has been featured widely in print and digital publications including: Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, I Am Not a Silent Poet, The Compass Rose and California Woman. I run The Poet by Day, an info hub for poets and writers and am the founding/managing editor of The BeZine.

“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.”  Lucille Clifton