Poetry by Joey Connolly
Here is a trilogy using three common prayers:
the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory Be
To the Father as inspiration
for secular poems about mothers.
OUR MOTHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN
Our mother who is up in heaven above
honored be thy name and family with you
your children here on earth send all their love
thank you for all your work, giving birth too.
Give us this day your mother’s tasty old recipes
for scalloped potatoes and Boston baked beans
cottage pudding cake, ham and black eyed-peas
homemade cocoa, we drank throughout our teens.
Forgive me mother for not helping you more
and spending my allowance at the candy store
so I could avoid the smallest household chore
complaining that washing dishes was a bore.
I hope to see you in heaven if I ever get there
until then dearest mother know that I care.
HAIL MOTHER WHO SANG AMAZING GRACE
All hail my mother who sang Amazing Grace
and many other old time songs in our backyard
then old Christmas carols by our stone fire place
where she taught us how to make a Christmas card.
A jolly mother who put up with three naughty boys
two angelic daughters and her two adoring cats
that brought her bird and rabbit tributes as joys
and for seventeen years her house was free of rats.
To mothers everywhere from Grandmas back to teen
with childhood memories of “our angel guardians dear”
all the prayers and songs you taught us in between
your love and purpose Mothers always perfectly clear.
Hail to all mothers with dignity and grace
this prayer is for you across all cyberspace.
GLORY BE TO THEE DEAR MOTHERS
Glory be to all dear mothers who had difficult births
mine with three boys and then two younger daughters
father prayed a nine day novena he considered worth
the life of all Cesareans born without broken waters
now and forever shall be great mothers to the end
and the same to their loving children and men.
***
N.B. Explication: My mother passed away peacefully at
age 92. She had all her mental faculties and I spoke with
her on the phone the night before she died. She was jovial
and planning a birthday party for my youngest sister. She
graduated from Nazareth College, Rochester, NY at the age
of 20 in 1939. All five of her C-sections were assisted by a
Chinese physician. She related well with all her teenage
children and their friends in the turbulent 60s and danced,
rocked, and sang with all. I dearly miss her joie de vivre.
Joey “Pepe Batbon” Connolly is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is the Poet Laureate of Tinian and enjoys stargazing.
