Happy Mother's Day!

 

Mother’s Day

I am overwhelmed by the primal reality

of mother and child,

as a father I feel the pull to the child

and joy in who they can come to be

from their own crafting,

from the genes we’ve shared with them,

from the unconditional love and guidance

that each parent freely bestows upon them, 

yet they who conceived and carried the child within them,

they who undertook the first great labor

that is the sine qua non of human existence,

of them, of the mother, I am in awe,

as Spring awakens plant and animal upon the land,

it is time to celebrate the Mother, with a day,

now Demeter makes sure Persephone returns 

to bring forth the growing year,

despite the patriarchal assertion of the male principle

within contemporary religion and culture,

I hearken back to Gaia, the Great Mother,

whose primacy we ignore at our own peril,

Happy Mother’s Day, mothers and fathers,

thank you, mothers, for the primal gift

of the children you brought forth,

how wonderful it is that the child goes forth from you,

and that you work with all who help

to enable as bright a future as possible, 

for them, with them,

congratulate yourself, for today, and always, 

the mother is first.

by Henry H. Walker      ’21

illustration by Milly Grace Ames