Hummingbird, a sonnet for my mom

marlyncabrera(72)

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#poet

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Happy Mother's Day!

I hope your mom is good to you and that you're good to her. And if she's not here anymore, I hope you can always go to that special place where she's always waiting for your visit. I visit mine in my thoughts and sometimes in my dreams, and I can tell we have become best friends as years and years have gone by.

My father always jokes about being the only mother I have left 😄 this is us a week ago, while having lunch with some colleagues of mine at a restaurant

It's my personal tradition that every year I will sit down and write a poem to honor my mom. This year, it's a sonnet (an English sonnet), and as a motive, I've chosen a hummingbird. My mom was always humming some tune; I remember it annoyed me so much, but now I miss it. Funny, huh. Like a hummingbird, she always sought the nectar of life regardless of the difficulties.

Hummingbirds are magnificent, persevering and passionate birds which symbolize love and happiness, among other things. A couple of hummingbirds visit my garden twice a day. I watch them from the kitchen and they brighten my day no matter what. I haven't been lucky enough as to take a good picture of them; I see them through the glass, grids and screens of the window.

My Hummingbird

My hummingbird sang tunes I didn’t know
from younger days, perhaps, from an old crush
of Junes and Aprils gone not long ago
that I could not but think there was no rush.

Hovering flittingly, she sweet and swift
showed me to find the friendship of a flower.
If it was good, I’d thank it for the gift;
I wouldn’t snivel if it tasted sour.

But when October was three months away,
and there were early buds waiting to bloom,
a birdcatching disease found her one day,
and quieted her wings in a sick room.

I lost my hummingbird, the bird in me,
but her heartbeat's still fast as we fly free.

I like to use iambic pentameter (verses of five iambs), and more if it is in a sonnet. A friend once told me that everything you say in a sonnet has an authoritative tone that makes almost everyone take you seriously. I think so; I guess it has to do with its organization: the first stanza introduces a topic, the second one discusses it, the third one introcudes the volta and somehow a change of view and tone, and finally, the final couplet makes a conclusion. I think this helps us convey a message that many will understand clearly, and hopefully, they will feel it, too.

Mom and grandma 40 years ago

It pleases me that I have written this before the day ends, a sonnet for my mom. Now I'm going to see my sisters 😄 See you later, and Happy Mother's Day!💓