Skip to main content

In Celebration of Usefulness



All three of our sons have had birthdays in the past three months.  Another year older, another year gone.  


While road-tripping over spring vacation, my husband and I were sharing laughs over those years now gone with our littler  - now - bigger ones.   I reached for this beautiful book and opened to the entries by my all-time favorite poet, Sharon Olds.  She spoke to my earnest collegiate heart in Contemporary Lit class and still resonates with me today.  


As I began to read this poem aloud to my  husband, tears welled and my voice cracked over the simple words that somehow evoked the sense of joy-loss each birthday brings.  I hope you find it as moving as I did.

Socks
Sharon Olds


I'll play Ninja Death with you
tonight, if you buy new socks, I say
to our son.  After supper he holds out his foot,
the sock with a hole for its heel, I whisk it
into the wastebasket.  He is tired, allergic,
his hands full of Ninja Death leaflets,
I take a sock from the bag, heft his
Achilles tendon in my palm and pull the
cotton over the arch and instep,
I have not done this for years, I feel
intensely happy, drawing the sock
up the calf --Other foot--
as if we are back in the days of my great 
usefulness.  We cast the dice 
for how we will fight, I swing my mace,
he ducks, parries with his chain, I'm dazed, then
stunned.  Day after day, year after 
year I dressed our little beloveds
as if it were a life's work,
stretching the necks of the shirts to get them
over their heads, guarding the nape as I
swooped them on their back to slide overalls on---
back through the toddler clothes to the one-year
clothes to those gauzy infant-suits that un-
snapped along the seam to lie
fully open, like the body first offered to the
soul to clothe it, the mother given to the child.





Comments

  1. Moving words, Misty...both yours and those in the poem. Hope the day was wonderful! Such cute pics, too. H2U!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

~Grace and peace to you~

Popular posts from this blog

Locally Grown {stuffed green peppers recipe}

  Last weekend we took the whole family to a nearby produce stand.  We were craving something that tasted fresh from the garden and since I don't have my own garden, we found this place.     The fields were full of fall-colored flowered.  Can't wait for those cooler days to come.         But for now, we are reveling in the height of summer sunshine and produce.       It's easy to go overboard here and buy much more than you can use in the next few days.  I don't even like okra but they look so inviting in those cute blue crates.     These tomatoes inspired a caprese salad for lunch: tomato slices cut into quarters, hunks of fresh mozzarella, snipped basil leaves, salt, pepper and drizzles of olive oil and red wine vinegar.       These strawberries wound up being dunked in Silky Chocolate Fondue .       Every girl dreams of doing her shopping with one of these adorable woven baskets, doesn't she?       Even the boys had fun playing in the sand while I took m

Savoring Summer {Staying in the Season}

The desk full of binders, calendars, sports schedules and dreamy ideas is where I currently find myself, while my mind continues to stray back to the mountains and clouds of our trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. We have been home for a week and I decided in future, I must come home better mentally prepared for the onslaught of emails and to-do items that pile up when we go away for two whole weeks. The fact that school resumes one week from today only intensifies the pressure to get it all done right away. Usually at this point in August I am eager for cooler, less humid days hinting at the beauty of spicy Autumn flavors. Not this year. I am so invigorated by my return to normal movement following the long recovery from knee surgery that I don't want these summery days to end. At least not until they officially end on September 23, 2014. This year feels like a do-over, the last one so consumed by injury, pain and slow, slow, slow recovery. My mind is bursti

Petals :: 52 Photos Project

Where I live the Bradford Pears have bloomed and blown and the Cherry Blossoms are in full blossom.  Even though that means our allergy season is now officially underway, I cannot help opening our windows every morning in hopes of hearing the birds singing to greet the day.  Springtime has conveniently coincided with my personal recovery process from knee surgery.  As I am slowly re-gaining mobility on crutches it seems an added encouragement that the weather is also improving and the trees are welcoming my return with their flowers. What a treat it would be to be able to put down my crutches in time for Easter Sunday and walk again on my own! (I am doubtful but one can hope.) Sharing with 52 Photos Project :: Petals