My mother passed on today.

My mother passed on today.
No tribute will ever be adequate.
 
I was held (almost smothered)
by my husband
together with my children
when I received the news.
 
She’s still with me in so many ways.
She gave with such wholehearted generosity
and in so much fervent profusion
that those gifts still flow unquenched.
 
Love was her currency:
in an ardent love affair with my father
they were wrapped up in each other
in total immersion for over 62 years.
 
Her passionate care-taking
and overflowing creativity
pulse through me
now more than ever.
 
I am surrounded by her values
which I perpetuate:
education, loyalty, family, propriety and artistry…
She remains practically echoing in my head.
 
And memories flood in
that will occupy future poems
while knowing what she’d think about anything
keeps the awesome connection alive.
 
I just wish my kids had known her better,
but they express so much of her anyway
and she’d be so proud of them
if she only could have known.
 
Her legacy of intense devotion
continues to bear fruit
beyond what she could have imagined
and I’m assured that she’s in a good place.
 
I’m left holding a heap of gratitude
for being fortunate enough
to learn at her side
and follow in her footsteps.
 
To know such largess
from so early on, humbles me.
She was such a capable, encouraging nurturer…
No wonder I knew there was a God.
 
  
Polly Castor
8/18/13