Father’s Day
Years of absence taking
their toll. Distance traveled
without regret to fulfill
a heart’s wishes becoming regret
at separation from those left behind.
Always missing them,
of course. No real concern,
other times. Phone and video.
Travel. All more than enough.
Most times. Must be the years.
This day is different.
never really gone
there is absence
and there is not
your face mirrored in a grandchild
the memories of you gathered by my sons,
images they hold for truth, twenty-five years later,
their eyes seeing things I took for granted
my thoughts when I hold your tools,
when I use them
never really gone,
you are here
always
Father’s Day 2018
He is a young man
As he regards his newborn son
lying just beyond the glass,
He is struck by the realization
of the responsibility he now faces
As a father
No longer a newborn,
He is now a young man
Through his experience as a parent
he is gaining a new understanding
Of his father
No longer a young man,
he lies recovering
from yet more surgery
The young man is struck by the realization
of the responsibility he now faces
As a son
On the eve of Father’s Day,
He comes to realize that it takes
more than a holiday to make a father
Just as that father may be loved
on more than just that day
I wrote this for my father in 1993. The video has the story behind the poem, as well as a reading.
