Granny, Paul, and Tipper 1974
Granny, Paul, and Tipper 1974

Mother Creator written by Nancy Dillingham

Mother
who made me
in warm womb
I thank you

Mother
who through you
I’m found
I’m bound

You validate
my veracity
my tenacity

Mother
who made me
who took me
who shook me
from the tree
you shaped me

Upon rising
each day
in any place
in any space
I scan the horizon
looking for your face

——————

The poem above is from the anthology It’s All Relative Tales from the Tree From 50 WNC Women Writers edited by Celia H. Miles and Nancy Dillingham. Celia sent me the book several months ago. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading it.

Some of the pieces in the book are meaningful in the way the one above is, some of the pieces will make you laugh while others will make you cry. Then there are those that are just hard to read-you know tough tough situations. But that’s how families are-good, bad, mixed up, funny, and in some cases maddening.

Mother Creator is the very first piece in the book, once I read the poem it stayed with me. We all carry pieces of the woman who mothered us around in our heads and hearts and whether we realize it or not we often look for her as we go about our way.

If you’d like to find out more about the book or/and purchase it, jump over to Celia’s website.

Tipper

 

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15 Comments

  1. B.Ruth-thank you for the comments! Yes that is Steve in the photo. I liked the photo of him being in the frame of the photo-I’m sure he was at school but it was like he was there with us too : )

  2. Here’s a little poem I wrote on Mother’s Day. You are welcome to use it however you choose. I thought it might make a song with the first verse as the chorus.
    I wonder if my mama misses me,
    when they gather round the Throne.
    I wonder if she sings without me
    Or if she‘ll wait ‘til I get home.
    God took our mama from us
    when I was barely grown.
    I’m sure he had a reason,
    but I wish I could have known.
    I could have told her how I loved her
    I could have whispered in her ear,
    “Go on and start without me,
    I’ve got to stay a few more years.”
    I could have put my arms around her
    As she did me when I when I cried.
    I could have told her “It’s all right.”
    “Go on, Daddy’s waiting,
    with his arms spread open wide!”

  3. I love Nancy’s poem, Tipper. I am honored to have a piece in that book. Celia and Nancy do a great job with their anthologies.
    This post goes a long with my post today on Profilesandpedigrees.blogspot.com where I go back to my home and look for long lost relatives a couple of weeks ago. We had a reunion of my mother’s Robison family.
    You look so much like your mother I had to read the caption before I knew it was not you.

  4. Tipper,
    I love the picture! Those (almost identical) beautiful chinquapin eyes!
    Is that a picture of your brother Steve in the background?
    I’m pretty sure I have this book on my Kindle…I know I have “The Body at Wrapp’s Mill” by Celia Miles for I read it…
    Thanks Tipper,
    Enjoyed this post!

  5. Thanks, Tipper, for posting about IT’S ALL RELATIVE…family stories and memories are good, bad, ugly, true–and not all sweetness and light. The anthology speaks to a lot of people, so they tell us… and even ask for “the next one.” Your blog connects people in a wonderful way–I’m grateful. Interesting to read the other day that your Deer Hunter grew up in the Dutch Cove in Canton; my parents lived in Kim’s Cove/Rhodarmer Cove after I finished high school.

  6. Very meaningful words, thanks for sharing. I was amazed how much you and your daughters favor Granny!

  7. Tipper,
    That was a nice poem about Mother. I imagine about everyone can relate to those words, I sure can.
    Recently I was looking at a picture my oldest brother sent me before he died. It’s of daddy and two brothers back in about 1912. His daddy is holding my daddy and Grandma is in there too. It’s amazing how much I look like daddy…Ken

  8. THANKS Tipper! So meaningful, and it reminds me of how much I am like my mother. Of her SIX daughters, I am the one who looks most like her – strong, blue eyes, determined and always devoted to loved ones!
    Eva Nell

  9. Wonderful how Nancy D. could put a very meaningful and treasured function of life into beautiful words. Thanks for sharing a part of this book.

  10. Thanks so very much for posting (and liking!) my poem from our anthology–Celia gave the the heads up and I immediately sat down to read your blog. So very generous of you to share our anthology–and your lovely comments–with everyone. — Nancy Dillingham

  11. It isn’t exactly in line with your post, but I am amazed at how family resemblance passes through the generations. Somehow it seems it would be blurred then erased but it doesn’t happen. The use of DNA in genealogy is dependent on just that constancy. That’s one reason pictures of grandparents and great-grandparents are so valuable. As Miss Cindy mentions, your Mom, you and your girls all retain resemblance yet are uniquely different.
    I have recently been corresponding with some of my wife’s distant ‘genetic cousins’ that are scattered across the country in Oregon, Indiana and Virginia. The family relationship is so distant I don’t know what it would be called or even if there is a name.

  12. Tipper, You’ve definitely whetted my interest in the book, and I think I will just order a copy for my personal library. It sounds like “my kind of book”! Anyway, I’m also interested in encouraging writers since I myself sort of like to be classed in the category of “writer”. Nancy Dillingham has done a superb job in crafting her free verse poem to catch the essence of “Mother.” Thank you for sharing.

  13. There certainly is truth in those words. We are forever tied by that birthing.
    Pretty little Tipper in this picture looks a lot like Mom. Pretty little Tipper also looks a lot like the two pretty little brown eyed girls she birthed. That’s what mothers and daughters do and mothers and sons too.

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