What Colour is Your Mother?
A repost for this Mother’s Day. Thoughts on this topic began some time ago. I was talking with a mother who does not like pink. She much prefers purple or violet and mauve. She is also very fond of green and blue. It has all been spinning around in my echoey little head. This weekend in Australia, we celebrate Mothers’ Day. We hope all your mothers enjoy the weekend.
What Colour is Your Mother?
What colour is your mother?
Is she orange or yellow?
Bursting forth,
like the intensity of the summer sun.
Might she be pink and pretty?
Full of the promise of a youthful mum,
With years of mothering ahead of her.
Is she soft and subtle, like mauve or lavender hues?
And hints of lilac?
Always sustaining
The backdrop of your life.
Or, is she the ruby red of love?
Chased
And fought
And won.
Or spent
On the battlefield,
Or ‘neath the martyr’s crown.
Has she the lush and liveliness of deep green?
Like a meadow inviting you
To sprawl or sit
In delight.
Does she rise in regal violet and purple?
Of a royal state and grace.
Or are her eyes like the bluest ocean?
Reflecting, in its depths,
The overcast sky.
Or the warm hue of the cloudless dome?
That enfolds us in its throw.
What kind of colour has your mother shone
Down the spectrum of your years?
Might all those colours collect you,
And cast aside your fears.
Simon C.J. Falk 10 May 2014.
This is just beautiful. As a mother and as a daughter this brought a tear to my eye.
Thanks Polly. It is largely inspired by my own Mother, who has always been close to her sons. She did art at school, read an epic book on the history of colour, and, it is through the paternal line of her family that poetry came through her to me. It is my Mother’s Dad and Grandad who are the subjects of the poem about ‘Grandfather and Great Grandfather https://simonfalk28.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/grandfather-and-great-grandfather-retro/. I’m so pleased that another mother can relate to it as well.