Legacy Of Poetry

I was delighted when I came across my mothers book of poems 17 years ago on my birthday. She had passed away the year before, and we were sorting through some of her things when I found an old notebook containing the poems she had written. Her legacy of poetry was the best birthday gift I ever received, along with the handwritten journals and diaries she kept most of her married life as a farm wife and mother. None of her writing or poetry was ever published, and she never intended it to be. She wrote simply because she enjoyed writing.

I was looking back over her poems recently and was especially touched by one she wrote about the children growing up. I'm also dreading facing that empty room one day, but feeling blessed by my mothers legacy of poetry that is such an encouragement to me 30 years after it was written, as my three oldest children have grown up and left home and the reality of the empty nest looms ever so near.

The Children's Room

As I tuck my little boy in his bed each night,
and pull the blankets up around him tight,
"Goodnight, Mommy and Daddy love you," I always say,
then kiss him, and so ends another day.

This little ritual started many years ago,
how many times I'll never know,
with my first little boy, who was such a joy,
he's married now with his own little boy.

There was also a little girl, she was oh so dear,
and I went in that room for many a year.
they were my life, they were my world,
she's married too, with her own little girl.

Now this last child is growing taller each day,
and I know before long he'll go his own way.
Oh, time please slow down, and don't pass too soon,
for I sure hate to face that empty room.

Written by Janet L. Leasure (1979)