The Problem With Mothers, a Poem

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I am becoming my mother,
like countless women before me became theirs -
all withering skin
wry remarks
and unremembered things

We both had our days as peach laden boughs of the same tree.
We walked with authority
first she
then me
both heavy with our fruits
heady with our responsibilities
and lavish with our endless judgments

We sprang up from our beds every morning
like a step springs from the earth that bears it.
We harnessed the downward force
and bounded forward
heedless of warnings.
Who had time to heed warnings?
The duties were many
the moments were too few.
Gravity both gave us our bounce
and kept our charges still

What neither of us knew then
we both know now
she dead, me following her closely:

As much as we loved gravity
gravity couldn’t have cared less
about us

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All images are my own unless otherwise stated

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73 comments
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I've said it before. I'll say it again. You are a poet.

Filled with love. But also, a wistful regret, an awareness of inevitable mortality and a past that cannot be undone.

Bravo, @owasco, for moving me.

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And thank you for that lovely comment, so true to what I was trying to convey, and actually showed me something I had unknowingly hidden in there that is so very much a force in my life - regret for some of my decisions. I almost took the line who has time to heed warnings? out because it seemed gratuitous (I did take it out, then put it back), but something more powerful told me to leave it in.
Poetry is often like freewriting - when a piece is done and published, I find truths in them both that I did not consciously know were there.

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This is superb! What a wonderful piece, to which every woman can relate! Bravo 💖

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Holy smoking ruins, Batman! That was devastatingly beautiful! I am in awe.

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WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!

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I've been hibernating. We've been inundated with rain and everything is soggy and depressing. I'm trying to get myself back into the swing of things, but it's been a challenge!

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I have missed you sorely. Getting back into swings can be pretty hard, and you were swingin'! Anyway, I am so happy to hear from you, and thank you for your great comment. Invoking batman no less! lol. I miss your photographs, and your goats, but mostly I miss your words and stories. No pressure though!

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I got my fancy new camera and I have been trying to learn how to use it, but it won't stop raining! I can't go out in the wet with it, so most of my pictures have been very blah. I have been working on a post for a while, but I've been having technical difficulties. As for the words, the quotidian has overtaken my brain and drained all the poetry out of it. As the world comes back to life, I am hoping that my inspiration comes back with it. Thank you for your kind words.

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Rain and muck have not deprived you of words, @goat-girlz. Love this:
the quotidian has overtaken my brain and drained all the poetry out of it. As the world comes back to life, I am hoping that my inspiration comes back with it. You haven't lost a thing! You're just holding yourself to a higher standard than mere mortals meet.

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She does do that doesn't she? Or they? I'm not sure how many of these goat-girlz there are.

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Oh, if only it were that easy! Ha ha! Check out the post I did yesterday to get a taste of what I've been doing. I am feeling decidedly mortal, and oh so fallible, but you are an angel so say such lovely things. You are always too kind to me.

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Yes you gave us one post of stunning photos that you took with your new camera, then poof! you were gone. No pressure though. I certainly get that weird weather can be depressing. Over here on the other side of the country it's been so warm I have to wear tick protection to go outside.

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Ticks in February? That's crazy! I did just post yesterday (finally) so you can get a hint of what I've been dealing with for the last couple of months. It's not just the weather. I really hope to get back on the wagon with you all. Your encouragement is so helpful.

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Beautiful and moving! It reminded me of a similar poem written by my mother many many years ago. Thank you!

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Ah! So you come from a line of poets?

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It appears so! My mom and her dad, my grandpa - they both wrote poetry.

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Hello @owasco,

A beautiful poem loaded with many truths.

Thank you so much for sharing it.

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Thank you for stopping by and for your appreciation!

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I look like her more and more every day , and that’s wonderful, difficult and nice at once

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I have always looked a lot like my mother did at every age. I am now a lot like her in other ways too. Thanks for stopping in!

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Love it! I'll bet you felt like a breath of fresh air with this poem finished. Congrats to you for the rally upvote!

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Yeah it was a concept that had been brewing for a while. It was nice to get it out. And thank you!

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a beautiful poem dedicated with much love to a being that no matter how much we want it to go. They continue to care for us from heaven.

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I do feel that, and I ask for her help quite often. Thank you for your comment, it's made me a bit teary.

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Thanks for sharing your lovely poem @owasco.

It seems no matter, how we felt about our mothers while growing up, what we wouldn’t give to have another afternoon with them.

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This was inspired by a memory I had of the two of us when I looked at her at the kitchen table and blurted out "all of a sudden you don't seem that much older than me"

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A most excellent work @owasco. I agree with @agmoore, you ARE a poet.
I love those images, I assume they are of your family? Perhaps you are
In there as well? wonderful stuff.

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My mother is in all of them. And she's with her mother in the first one. I don't know who the oldest woman is in that one - her grandmother maybe. I am farthest to the right in the campfire photo.
I was a poet long before I started writing any fiction. My first fiction was for steem, a 50 word story for @jayna's contest. Then onto freewrites and here I am today, a writer!

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Ha ha ha... just doing it is all it takes. I got started around 2013, wanting to post upbeat and inspirational stuff on FB (of course) so I had bookmarked a couple of sites that offered quotes and poetry.
I would try to find some writing that express how I felt at that moment, when I found such a writing, I would then go to Google images and search for a pic that (to me) echoed what I meant to convey in the writing.
After a couple of years (with great responses from my friends and followers) there came a point where I wasn't able to find things that either

  1. expressed what I was feeling or
  2. I hadn't already used, so...

I began writing my own stuff, and then came tsu, where you weren't allowed to use copyrighted photos, only original or CC, so I had to start searching for copyright free images.
All of that to say, here we are! And since I DID cash out once here, I am now a PAID author, which makes me a professional!

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Thanks for stopping by @owasco

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You came to my place! But your comment pretty much sums up what I have experienced on steem as well: I now write fiction, take and edit photos, layout blog posts with markdown, market myself and walk the earth with new eyes. All things I have never done before.

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You came to my place!

So I did, didn't I ha ha ha... my mistake. 😜

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I do so love the way you write. This poem is fantastic. We all suffer through the passage of time, a slow, sometimes fun, sometimes tiring, march.

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Thank you! And exactly.

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Very creative and to the point poem. I didn't know whether to smile or cry.. I suppose that's a good thing. Love how you included the pictures. They are truly nostalgic and made me smile at the end, that's how I knew I was meant to be happy about this realization rather than sad.. If that makes any sense. I don't know how long it has been since mom's passing, but regardless, I am sorry for your loss :-(

Beautiful and immortalizing poem though :-)

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Thank you! She's been gone a long time now. But I miss her terribly sometimes. I love your comment. Life is what it is, both momentous and a nothing burger. Depends who you ask and when. Some comments just make me want to write another poem!

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I know what you mean! Write Write Write!!!!! .. But no "nothing burger's" please.. haha

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@owasco - this is a fantastic poem - the emotions moved me and the words spoke to me. Which is what makes it a great poem!

Who had time to heed warnings?
The duties were many
the moments were too few.

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Beautiful poem @owasco and the photos are beautiful. 🙏

!trdo

Posted using Partiko Android

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Thank you Uncle! One of these days please explain to me what this TRDO is. I am befuddled about it, among many other things on steem.

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That's a beautiful poetry..
Very emotionally written

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A remarkable poem that definitely speaks to woman becoming their mothers without realizing it.

Too busy to listen when young, siblings just having loads of fun, Mother always there to tend to us at the end of the day, yes the time was too short!

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Was it? Was it though? It felt like it went so slowly while I was in the maelstrom of it. Only now does time seem to fly.

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We were too busy having fun to notice the time, then you get to being a teen and wish your life away wanting to be older. When you reach older age you wish you were younger again, how fickle we are.

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Lovely poem! The mother's love is the greatest of feelings!♥️

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You knew I'd love this! I'm turning into my father, but we all turn into our mothers too, for better or worse. I like to think for the better.

Your opening lines are authoritative, confident, authentic:
I am becoming my mother, (love the pentameter of it!)
like countless women before me became theirs -
all withering skin
wry remarks
and unremembered things

Ah, too true.
The final lines bring it home again with a harder impact than those opening lines - she dead, me following her closely - not too closely! You're not that old yet! - and then the clincher:

As much as we loved gravity
gravity couldn’t have cared less
about us

Wow!

The photos are fantastic. Thank you for sharing them.
You're totally a poet!
I can't believe this began as a freewrite....!!!

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Oh no this is no freewrite. I worked on it for days and days, and cogitated on it for one day before I even started writing. I intended to wait to publish until my little contest was over (sixteen entries! agmoore just entered too) but the finished poem begged to be published.
And thank you to my most ardent fan. xo

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I'm intrigued by the little loner in the photo, absorbed in her own world (and her stick, or magic wand?) :) Reminds me of my own childhood. :)

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That's the youngest of five, my sister Karen. I am farthest to the right, trying to be invisible, my default state. I'm working on that though!

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BTW, we are making our breakfast-in-a-bag over that fire, so she is extending her stick for her bag. First we would line the bottom of a paper bag with bacon, crack a couple of eggs on top, then cook it over the fire. I'm not sure it was a labor-saving technique for my mother though. I'm assuming my father took the photo, and he tended to scare the crap out of me.

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Cooking in a PAPER BAG over a fire?? Sounds like a magic trick to me!
Love your little sister, and how long has it taken you to stop trying to be invisible?

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The beginning and the end and in the middle half of us up there and the other half down here on earth.
A lovely poem my friend and our mothers will forever be in our hearts!
Blessings!

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I love your comment. Thank you, and blessings right back at you.

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It is indeed a great poem my friend and you can feel proud of yourself!
Blessings!

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Oh so true @!owasco :) You are truly a writer! Love these wise words

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Howdy owasco! tremendous writing and great old photos. "lavish with our endless judgments" lol..so well said, I know that personality very well.

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That is a lovely, somewhat melancholy, and haunting poem, @owasco. Beautifully done!

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Beautiful words of wisdom. Every woman can almost feel and say the exact words you lay bare. I know that you wrote this for me. The part where you say, "with our endless judgements," wow. It spoke to me, and I have to be very careful not to repeat with my own.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on our mothers and ourselves. Very thought-provoking and definitely words all women can relate to.

Have a beautiful day and week going forward.

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