Love is not attachment.
It is not affection or passionate desire.
Love is not a longing or a warm feeling of fondness.
Nor is it an intense, wholehearted attraction.
Love cannot be these things.

Love is benevolence.
Love is giving, selfless and complete.
Devotion.
Love cannot be said.
Love may only be done.

You are welcome to share this poem for noncommercial use and dedicate it to your favorite mother, but please credit the author if you share it on social media or elsewhere on the Internet …

Mother’s Smile
by Michael R. Burch

There never was a fonder smile
than mother’s smile, no softer touch
than mother’s touch. So sleep awhile
and know she loves you more than “much.”

So more than “much,” much more than “all.”
Though tender words, these do not speak
of love at all, nor how we fall
and mother’s there, nor how we reach
from nightmares in the ticking night
and she is there to hold us tight.

There never was a stronger back
than father’s back, that held our weight
and lifted us, when we were small,
and bore us till we reached the gate,
then held our hands that first bright mile
till we could run, and did, then flew.
But, oh, a mother’s tender smile
will leap and follow after you!

I have dedicated this poem to my mother, Christine Ena Burch, and my wife, Elizabeth Harris Burch. Published by TALESetc, Famous Poets and Poems, Poems for Big Kids (anthology), Victorian Violet Press, Better Than Starbucks, Promosaik (Germany), Pour Femme (Italy), Korean Palmers, JIT Jaipur (India), Inspirational Stories and Care2Care; also Penguin Books Valentine’s Day Contest Winner and included in the Children of Gaza song cycle by composer Eduard de Boer. Keywords/Tags: Mother, Mothers, Day, love, compassion, tenderness, encouragement, selflessness, sacrifice, comfort, hugs, kisses, smile, smiles

You have always been selfless and done good for others
Even when you were the one that needed rescue
You've helped those in pain
Helped those in misery
Tell me
How is that going for you?
You've done so much
Helped so much
And for that
Thank you

Please don't be sad
You're legendary
You've done pure things, great things
So things will come around Eventually
I hope your future is a little less crazy
And a little more heavenly

Thanks again for losing your sanity
Just to make someone else's day happy
You deserve more praise
And maybe a raise too.

Save yourself by saving someone.
For that someone may rescue you.

Maybe it was the lighting,
But as you looked towards the rooms sky
I swore to you that the glistened dew stained
Your cheekbones, auburn.

It was the dimming glow that bothered mine.
I don’t know if was the environment,
Or the moon of currant, bleeding a signal that made
The mutts howl alongside you.

Your eyes, now faced with fears that knows
It can take over and plaster this town.
Fear subsiding into your crescent gaze
As you avoid looking at anyone.

I know you won’t hear me.
But I want to help you.

I want to take it all away from you
every last ounce of discomfort, bring it to me
I will bear it on the back of my shoulders
never letting you see the way it weighs me down
if I could take it all tomorrow, if it were gone tomorrow, you wouldn’t have to worry again
I’d hold it without a hint of pain on my face
I would breathe for you, be the breath in your lungs, give you the strength you need for today
if I could take it all tomorrow, I would take it all away, I would put it on myself without hesitation
I’d take the soreness, the fatigue, and weakness
without a second guess, it would be gone tomorrow, you would feel no more pain tomorrow

When we are breathing,
we share in our breath.

People are self-seeking,
and unless we play with
pragmatics, we can’t help it.
Yet we are helpless in
how bounteous we are.

When we are breathing,
we share in our breath,
and when we die,
we share in our death.


-
by Aleksander Mielnikow (Alek the Poet)