With patient love he watched her as she slept
She who had held him close to breast as child
Deep within his chest his aching heart wept.
Whilst she appeared contented in her dreams and smiled
As though her fears and troubles were finally reconciled
For soon the relentless punishing pain would be gone
Yet in his memory-this moment of love would linger on.
©Alison Jean Hankinson
This is for d’Verse where we were asked to write in Chaucerian stanza. First time I have done this.
The final slumber….
I am not sure I got the meter right.
The image is my Grandmother and her eldest son Frank.
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Hues of Hankinson 
Nice description of a son with his mother at her death.
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Life can be difficult, right? This hit an emotional trigger for me, with my mother dying at 39. Nice use of the form.
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Much love to you. XX
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Powerful and emotional poem.
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So sad and yet so sweet.
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Poignantly well-written, Alison
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Thankyou. XX
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Very touching, Alison!
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‘meter’ ‘schmeeter’ this is just lovely – and the photo adds so much to this verse (he has her eyes). Terrific.
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Lovingly written…hard for one to lose a mother while child is young, or the mother, or any mother anytime for that matter.
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Thankyou. XX
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Your poem touched me deeply, Alison, and reminds me of last January, watching my own mother sleep the day before she died.
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Much love to you. I think it is like birth peaceful for some, gutteral for others. I think is how I would have liked it to have been with my mum. Much love. XXXXX
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🙂 xxx
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This has to be one of those moments that will linger for many of us… very touching
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Many thanks.
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A very touching poem and photo, Alison.
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Bittersweet, yet those last moments we wouldn’t trade for the world. Well done, and it certainly struck a chord within my own heart.
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No mind to the meter, at least in my mind. This is a beautiful poem. The sweetness of the child watching the parent sleep — the relentless pain….perhaps the child having witnessed the parent suffer through an illness? The aching for the suffering one and the gentleness of sleep on her face…soon to be sleep of death? Much left unaswered in this beautiful post. I want another stanza that tells me…. and isn’t that the mark of a good writer, leaving us wanting more? Well done.
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With thanks. Xx
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