May Poetry, 3

My mother emailed some of her favorite poems to me this week. The following are from her:

My Grandma Marie Cummings had this framed and hanging in her tiny kitchen. I always loved it.

In the Kitchen of Chester Cathedral:
Lord of pots and pans and things,
Since I've no time to be
A saint by doing lovely things
Or watching late with Thee,
Or dreaming in the dawning light,
Of storming Heaven's gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals
And washing up the plates--
Warm all my kitchen with Thy love,
And light it with Thy peace.
Forgive me all my worrying,
Make all my grumbling cease.
Thou who didst love to give man food
In room or by the sea,
Accept this service that I do,
I do it unto Thee.

This was a sampler verse that was popular when you were little:

Cooking and cleaning can wait till tomorrow,
But babies grow up, we've found to our sorrow.
So settle down cobwebs, and dust go to sleep,
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.



Setting the Table
by Dorothy Aldis

Evenings
When the house is quiet
I delight
To spread the white
Smooth cloth and put the flowers on the table.

I place the knives and forks around
Without a sound.
I light the candles.

I love to see
Their small reflected torches shine
Against the greenness of the vine
And garden.

Is that the mignonette, I wonder,
Smells so sweet?
And then I call them in to eat.


And finally, a tribute to my courageous Mother:

The Courage that my Mother Had
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

The courage that my mother had
Went with her, and is with her still:
Rock from New England quarried:
Now granite in a granite hill.

The golden brooch my mother wore
She left behind for me to wear;
I have no thing I treasure more:
Yet it is something I could spare.

Oh, if instead she'd left to me
The thing she took into the grave!
That courage like a rock, which she
Has no more need of, and I have.


Happy Mother's Day to everyone!