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    AC Benus
  • AC Benus
  • Author
  • 02/27/2020
  • 240 Words
  • 930 Views
  • 11 Comments
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

One Hundred and Fifty-Five Sonnets - 59. fatherhood

.

Sonnet No. 117


Oh my darling, come lay your touch on me –

Let it drift and linger, and your smile say

That this is the way it will always be,

In spite of change, or place, or time of day.

The kitchen table's bare without you there –

No elbows on the wood, and no laughter,

For on cold mornings like this, it's not fair

That I face a day this much emptier.

But, on the table is laid out this thought –

To gather me your pausing touch and feel,

Your pressure with timbre of voice is brought,

To hold and remind that your love's real.

Near or far, our separations are brief;

Although apart, never is our belief.

 

 

Sonnet No. 118


In beauty's eye, every generation

Comes to bear with just the same potential –

Which explains with youth our fascination,

And its blessings and curse exponential.

But then, what means any of that, I ask,

When looking in a crib upon the smile

Of a little one in whose love to bask,

And who will shoulder our hopes for awhile.

Although we are creatures of flesh and bone,

We are also ones of hope and spirit;

With true desires not to be alone

When soul this body must decide to quit.

So please join with me that we might also

All the joys and pain of fatherhood know.

 

 

_

Copyright © 2018 AC Benus; All Rights Reserved.
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Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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Parker Owens
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The vivid images in Number 117 flood my mind; sleepy mornings at a sunlit kitchen table, timeless memories of gentle, scratchy faced hugs and plaid clad elbows resting on the table, coffee in hand. You brought so much of that back to me, and I'm grateful.

Number 118 made me smile, especially at the line and who will bear our hopes for awhile. Children are indeed joy on loan to us, and only briefly can we allow them to carry our hopes. Soon, they will have their own to bear.

Thanks very much for both of these wonderful sonnets.

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AC Benus
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3 hours ago, Parker Owens said:

The vivid images in Number 117 flood my mind; sleepy mornings at a sunlit kitchen table, timeless memories of gentle, scratchy faced hugs and plaid clad elbows resting on the table, coffee in hand. You brought so much of that back to me, and I'm grateful.

Number 118 made me smile, especially at the line and who will bear our hopes for awhile. Children are indeed joy on loan to us, and only briefly can we allow them to carry our hopes. Soon, they will have their own to bear.

Thanks very much for both of these wonderful sonnets.

Thank you for reading and commenting on them, Parker. You're POV is always most welcomed :yes:

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Lyssa

Both are so wonderful sonnets. I want to honor them properly with my comment, tomorrow when I am back on the bright side. I know, you will excuse the delay for a few hours. Thanks for sharing this wonderful art. 🙂

117 the picture you draw is the on of warmth and strength. The kitchen as the heart of a home is very true to me. I have so many dear memories, which took place in a kitchen. And still today this is my comfort zone. Thank you for bringing my memories alive to me again.

118 I get humble when I read those lines, about the blessing, that I again and again can discover the world anew, because of my own and the children I work with. And in stressful times, when I think, why am I doing this work, feeling like Don Quijote (or maybe naive as Sancho Pansa or both at the same time), I should remember this.

Edited by Lyssa
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Mikiesboy

I can see the first ... and I think i may be a little jealous of it, as it was not my experience. But I know good men now and i understand what's in their hearts. How deeply they love and care... beautiful, AC. Thank you, for this beautiful vision. xo

I know i'm not so old but i can see what you mean with number 118 ... and that exuberance of youth .. the freshness.. the discovery of things that are old to us, but new to them ... and zipping your lip and not saying, yes i know when they tell you. I'm not a dad, but sometimes i feel i am with my nephew.

Both of these are wonderful AC .. thank you. xo

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MichaelS36

The first reminds me of my father … of mornings with him before others got up. Sweet memories.

Ahhh youth … we don't know what we don't know, not until we have some history. A past to look back to.  How fresh we were, how alive, when the world was like a new penny .. glowing and alive.  If we are lucky, we feel that again with our children. Maybe we can share that with them … just a little.

Wonderful poems, AC.   Thank you.  

Edited by MichaelS36
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AC Benus
On 2/27/2020 at 2:24 PM, Mikiesboy said:

I can see the first ... and I think i may be a little jealous of it, as it was not my experience. But I know good men now and i understand what's in their hearts. How deeply they love and care... beautiful, AC. Thank you, for this beautiful vision. xo

I know i'm not so old but i can see what you mean with number 118 ... and that exuberance of youth .. the freshness.. the discovery of things that are old to us, but new to them ... and zipping your lip and not saying, yes i know when they tell you. I'm not a dad, but sometimes i feel i am with my nephew.

Both of these are wonderful AC .. thank you. xo

Thank you, Tim. The point your raise about the exuberance of youth is something I notice in my own work (suddenly). I don't mean currently, but contrasting the voice or the POV of things I write now against the recently vetted Willmore Pizza, I see a large difference. The Pizza tale, and most from the Becoming Real set, show a freshness and a new to love openness. This outlook does not need to be stated in these seven short stories, but it is there in the background, like a holy ghost guiding the third-person narrative.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. They are always appreciated     

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AC Benus
On 2/27/2020 at 9:06 PM, MichaelS36 said:

The first reminds me of my father … of mornings with him before others got up. Sweet memories.

Ahhh youth … we don't know what we don't know, not until we have some history. A past to look back to.  How fresh we were, how alive, when the world was like a new penny .. glowing and alive.  If we are lucky, we feel that again with our children. Maybe we can share that with them … just a little.

Wonderful poems, AC.   Thank you.  

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Mike. I really appreciate them, especially now with the virus going around and death sudden and tragic for many, this idea of a future looking brighter for our offspring seems more imperative than ever. I may be accused of generation bias, but many, many, many (you get the idea...) of the world's problems today are because the Baby Boomers are selfish and immoral, at least the leaders they vote for reflect these deadly sins. They have lived up to their parents' predictions and brought our Western World, guided by ethics and honor, to the brink in the name of grabbing all the money they can for themselves; those parents who told them point-blank: "Change your ways or you will ruin everything."

The babies in the cradles now face generations of setbacks, and lives guaranteed to harder than they were for their parents. 

 

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MichaelS36
1 hour ago, AC Benus said:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Mike. I really appreciate them, especially now with the virus going around and death sudden and tragic for many, this idea of a future looking brighter for our offspring seems more imperative than ever. I may be accused of generation bias, but many, many, many (you get the idea...) of the world's problems today are because the Baby Boomers are selfish and immoral, at least the leaders they vote for reflect these deadly sins. They have lived up to their parents' predictions and brought our Western World, guided by ethics and honor, to the brink in the name of grabbing all the money they can for themselves; those parents who told them point-blank: "Change your ways or you will ruin everything."

The babies in the cradles now face generations of setbacks, and lives guaranteed to harder than they were for their parents. 

 

You know, AC, I hope that this virus will teach us something. Maybe like what is important in life and it is not the grasping unending need for money. I pray it shows us that each life deserves respect. That each of us deserves a place to lay our heads in safety, and food and work. I hope we see that nature doesn't want or need us. We are invaders and will be the ruination of all, unless we learn a lesson from this lockdown. 

I hope and pray for all that but if I am honest, I don't believe it for a minute.  I will happy if I am proved wrong.

I hope you and yours are doing well. 

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