My mother’s love of poetry was something that was passed on to me. As a little girl I watched her read the old Capper’s Weekly paper she received in the mail and then cut out the poems or inspirational writings and tuck them in a box. She had a lot of yellowed, old clippings….recipes, obits, and poetry. One day she passed them on to me and said….. “there’s a lot of good stuff in here if you take time to read them…” I had them for some years and before one Mother’s Day I had an idea to give them back to her. After all, they were like old friends she had loaned me.

I looked through the old chocolate box she kept them in and sorted them into categories. I made a cover and painted it…then worded it… “My Memories.” In the first page, I wrote:

Mom…..These are old friends of yours, that I thought you would like to have back. I put them all together and snipped and pasted….and read every one. I have always heard it said that a persons character is reflected by what he likes to read….if that is true, this collection of poems that you’ve saved over the years, is a wonderful testimony of your inner thoughts. Knowing you as I do, I know that instead of yellow clippings pasted on paper, this little book will look gilded and beautiful to you. Your love of simple things is what I’ll always remember most about you.

Your loving daughter,
Esther
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I am going to share a favorite of hers that she often quoted. It became a favorite of mine as well.

I WANT TO

I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know,
I want to be able, as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye:
I don’t want to stand with the setting sun
And hate myself for the things I’ve done.

I don’t want to keep on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself, as I come and go,
Into thinking that nobody else will know,
The kind of man I really am:
I don’t want to dress up myself in sham.

I want to go with my head erect.
I want to deserve all men’s respect;
And here in the struggle for fame and pelf
I want to be able to like myself.
I don’t want to look at myself and know
That I’m bluster and buff and empty show.

I never can hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself, and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience-free.

Printed in the National News….author unknown

Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther