Life Everywhere

Mother Dear—
And it’s spring again,
New life budding everywhere—
In the treetops, and the bushes at the curb,
Down the street—
A peony sprouting under the ivy,
And a rose peeping up through our pansy bed,
And a downy-white cherry tree glorifying
The “Guest Room,”
Awaiting that precious life to bloom when the cherries ripen—
There’s awakening this spring,
Both inside and out!
(May 1931)

This poem was clearly written in Beverly, MA, while mom was pregnant with Mary, who was born just two months later on July 1, 1931. This is truly a beautiful expression of mom’s devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus (“Mother Dear”), after whom she named her first child, and of her deep sense of being a part of nature, of the creative process. She and the trees and flowers around her are one! This poem brings the essence of her personality together better than any other of her poems, I think. In 65 words, she has interwoven the major themes of her life: love of God, Love of Mary, love of family, love of nature, love of home, and love of her role as mother and as homemaker. This is the beauty of the poetic mind—to condense so much meaning into so few words.

I can only imagine how excited she must have been, how respectful she was of this gift awakening inside of her, her first child, paralleling the awakening of the life outside—the trees, peonies, roses, cherry blossoms, even the ivy and the “bushes at the curb!” She was so connected to the life around her, so much a part of it, so aware of the details around her. And the idea that she called the baby’s room, which she and dad must have gotten all ready for Mary, the “Guest Room,” conveys her deep sense of being honored to be a caretaker, a host, not to her own children, but to God’s children given to her to love and to nurture along until they too, like the trees and flowers outside her window, can stand on their own as part of God glorious creation.