A mother's love, A mother's pain

Written about my son, Josh, who was born with autism. He is the greatest gift I have ever known. The puzzle piece pictured is the "symbol" for autism ~

A mother’s love, a mother’s pain

 

 

A beautiful child

With gold in his heart,

Struggles each day

“Strikes against him”

  ...From the start.

His mind disabled,

there is no cure~

Yet the love that he gives

Warms the heart

...That’s for sure

Routine is the way

That he has to live

     ...His life every day

With laughter and love

He smiles and goes through

     His challenges in life

Handled better than most people do

He won’t ride a bike, drive a car,

     Or be on “his own”

He’ll “stay here with Mom”

That’s just what he’ll do

Though her heart breaks each time,

He wonders aloud~

Why he is "so different" and

     "How could she be proud"?

She holds her head high

With a gentle hug and

     Love in her eyes...

She explains from her heart

That he is a special gift to her

From the good Lord above

God wanted to give her

Unconditional love.

To hold in her hands

Give a smile in her heart

He is special in everyway

He has been~

 From the start.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

This is from my heart, not worried about the punctuation ~ this is the first poem that I have presented here... honesty is appreciated, sarcasm and rudeness can be directed elsewhere. Thanks for reading!!

Reviews

[Forist.johnston]

I love it, it brought tears to my eyes, and really made me think. It reminds me of when I first read 'WELCOME TO HOLLAND by Emily Perl Kingsley' It's beautifully written. Kudos to you, and an amazing 'First Poem'.=]



WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a
fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The coliseum.
The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome To Holland".

"Holland?!?" you say, "What do you mean "Holland"??? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy"

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around�and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills...Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned".

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things...about Holland.

[Tim]

This is a lovely well written poem. My kids grew up with a boy that was autistic. They were all good friends and they never treated him any different then their other friends. Ben was such a joy to be around. People don't realize the joy that children with autism can be. Ben and his family moved away a number of years ago but we still think of him often.

[Enigmatic Amor]

Wendy, your peom brought tears to my eyes. Unconditional love, how very beautiful is your heart. Your son is so very fortunate to have you by his side.

[SamBug]

Great poem. I loved it a lot. Great job. You really have a talent to write poetry!