My mother is only a year older than Husband which is, I guess, a little weird and sometimes quite funny. She herself has been battling some health issues lately and yet her strength, resiliance, generosity and support is breath-taking. This poem is for her:
When I was a baby, she scalded my face
With fire-kissed love
When I was a little girl, she beat me
At Scrabble
And Monopoly
When I was a big girl, she sliced into me
And removed the gremlins one by one
When I was a teenager, she terrified me
With her unexpected games of hide and seek
Then she lost my father….
She lost my father
But she found him for me again
When I was 20, she chased me to Europe and back
With her proud, protective angel wings
Then she broke my heart
Losing her breast
The pillow of my infancy
When I was 30, she destroyed everything I believed
About my ugliness
When I was 40, she broke into my house
Of dog-eared cards
And reshuffled me a new deck
She wrecked my basement
And built me a balcony
When I was 50, she put poison into my chalice
Turning blood-sorrow into silvery wine
She turned my stomach
Into twisting, twirling hilarity
She grabbed me in a headlock so fierce
So loving
So hot
That my breath wavered in awe
Of her strength
My anchorage
My sister
My friend
My daughter
My mother….
My mother
My
Mother
I wish I could be as good to her as she has been to me….
jmgoyder 
aw jeez…
Not sure if that is a compliment or a groan – haha!
Both.
Oh – okay! It’s nearly 3am here and I am actually having a lot of fun staying up all night, listening to the rain and, you know, just thinking….
I work nights…so my day is just beginning.
Oh! I want my day to end but I can’t seem to sleep. Well I hope you have a great day, Randy!
I don’t understand all the references but there’s no doubting your strong feelings 🙂
My dad died a little over 30 years ago and a few years later she had to have a mastectomy and chemo and all that. Now she is struggling with hearing problems and, because she is so wonderfully gregarious, this is such a blow but I better not say anymore or she will murder me because she reads this blog!
Sorry, Julie: I wasn’t prying. I was saying that your poem works even without knowing the details.
Sorry about your Mum’s hearing.
That’s fine – I just thought I should explain a bit – silly me – hehe! Thanks so much Tilly.
Also, just wanted to say that your picture at the top of your blog brings a huge smile to my face every single day – you have a contagious smile!
Can you see it right now? You just made it happen 🙂
Ah, yes! Thanks Tilly..
Ok. This post made me cry…what a beautiful testiment to a mother’s love…sniff, sniff.
She is the absolute greatest – yes, we have our differences here and there – nothing’s perfect and it would be silly to say that – but she is the most amazing woman, my heroine!
Wow! Your strong words blew me away. Very strong writing. I love it.
Thank you Pat!
She must have been very special.
Oh dear I just realized it might sound like she’s gone – no she’s still alive and kicking!
OOOPS, sorry, my mistake.
That’s okay – the poem does give that impression – sorry!
Julie…may I repost this on my Boys To Men Blog? It is so beautiful and such a testament to not only your mother as a ‘mother’ but as a woman. And to you also…you make me want to call my mom.
Rhonda
Of course – I’d be honoured!
Thank you (she says red faced), because I couldn’t wait for the reply. I shamelessly reblogged it. I love it and love your Mother for inspiring you to write it!
Rhonda
You are so lovely to like it – thanks for the reblog!
No Julie, thank you
Reblogged this on Boys To Men: A Woman's POV and commented:
This inspired poem by Julie Goyder is such a testament to her mother and to the woman her mother is…I just had to repost it here. The visual makes you hold your breath until you read the next line, then the next. I not only see my own Mother in Julie’s words…I feel her. Thank you jmgoyder and thank your Mother!
Wow this brought such feelings to my heart. My wife has had breast cancer as well as two other types, and some how this gave me feelings I have suppressed for a long time. Your Mother must be a wonderful woman and I send her my respect.
Thank you so much and my heart goes out to you and your wife and hoping there is hope for you guys!
very emotional, i absolutely loved this. thank u
I appreciate your comment – thanks!
Sounds like you love your mother the way I loved mine. Lovely poem.
Is your mother gone then?
Thirty years ago and it still feels like yesterday.
I’m so sorry – I remember you telling me this before.
Such a juxtaposition of thoughts and words! Wow! What a great Mom! Good weekend to ya!
Thanks wisdom!!
Wow, what wonderful, thoughtful tribute…such a lucky daughter…
Thank you for your comment and very nice to meet you!
Hi,
A lovely poem about your Mum, she does sound like a very special Lady indeed. 😀
Thanks and she sure is!
You are so fortunate, and so is your mother!
We are!
Would a mother who had not been treated in kind, be so kind? Likely not. Beautiful words, Julie.
~ Lynda
Yeah – she’s not bad!
🙂
julie that was awesome 🙂
just like your mum is!! xx
Thankyou
Thanks dodsywodsy!
Wow Julie… this is just phenomenal. What a beautiful tribute to your Mom. I love the way you utilized such contrast and imagery in this, and how you took the reader through the chronological events of your life and relationship with Mom. Thanks for sharing with us.
I wrote it for her birthday – she is a one-off!
WOW Fantastic work!
Thank you!
What a lovely tribute to your mother and she sounds like she’s an awesome person and incredible mother. Sorry to hear about her health issues xx
Thanks HS!!!!
OMG … so glad my friend and fellow blogger Nia reposted from your blog so I could come here and find this gem of a place. I love your stories and this poem … so emotionally charged and creatively written. Really, really beautiful. 😀 I look forward to following your posts.
Thank you!!!! Glad to have connected via the wonderful Nia!
A passionate and heartfelt poem, Julie – there are many joyful and sad stories here
Thanks bluebee – yeah, I wrote it for her birthday.
How about you are as good to your son as she was/is to you? That’s all a mom ever wants from her children anyway. Give your kid the love she taught you to give and share.
Good call!
This is so lovely – what a special person she must be.
Yes indeed!
So beautiful!!!
Thanks!!
I have two daughters, who fill me with purpose and love. I watch them as women, and I’m just thrilled that they ARE, that they’ve become. It’s humbling and awesome to be a parent. You are as good to her as she’s been to you. You recognize and appreciate her, and you’re you. That’s enough.
Sounds like you and your daughters have a very special thing!
This is a terrifically moving poem! What a tribute to your mom!!
Thanks and FINALLY I am getting your blog notifications – yeeha!
Very creative and a nice tribute to a lovely mother. The words take you in a different, perhaps expected, direction at first, then the next phrase turns it around into something lovely and sentimental.
Thanks again, Fergie – yeah I was trying to do this contradiction thing in the poem –
Hi Juli, What a touching piece of writing. I can remember so many of those things. I saw them from the distance of being her neice and on the other side of the country. But when I visited when I was 16 I can remember watching how you and you Mum interacted. You and I were out once and you bought a magazine to take home to your Mum because she liked reading magazines as she had missed out on them when she had been in PNG. I was amazed at your thoughtfulness. She would never let me call her Auntie Meg because it made her feel old so she has always been Meggie.
Oh Beth – thanks for these memories!
A lovely poem. Your mom should be proud how her daughter has turned out. You mentioned she reads your blog…here a message from a stranger..”Bravo to both of you!”
What a great thing to say! Thanks P&B!
This is a wonderful poem. I hope that your mother knows how much she means to you.
Thanks Aimee!
Wonderful poem. Mothers are very important.
Bella and DiDi
Thanks woofers!
As I read that poem, the word that came to mind was Fierce! As in an intense love fully committed.
Your mother sounds like an awesome and fierce woman who raised an awesome and fierce woman who is raising an awesome and fierce son!
Wishing your mother a speedy recovery. Sending positive energy and healing thoughts her way!
Thanks Linda! Fierce – okay – good call!
This. Is. Amazing.
She. Is. Amazing.
wow…. powerful as can be. I hope that your mom can see this. You have done her proud girl!
She is so strong!
What a wonderful tribute to your dear
Mother 😍
It was almost impossible to continue reading this poem, but I couldn’t stop. Like a train wreck you cant avert your eyes. So much said, so much more unsaid. An amazing daughter. Virginia
Thanks Virginia, very much! Juliex