Tag Archives: children

I Strive To Be As The Sapling

I strive to be as the sapling;

Flexible in the path of the raging gale.

The sapling does not struggle against its foe,

It does not stand rigid as an elder,

It bows gracefully and without pretense.

Even in its youth

The sapling knows it could not withstand the fury,

So by yielding it survives unscathed.

This is the wisdom lost to maturity.

With age the sapling becomes increasingly inflexible

Until in time its trunk refuses to bend.

We are not so unlike the simple tree,

Showing great resilience in childhood,

Becoming unwavering and obstinate with age.

Oh what I would not give to be as the lowly sapling.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Awake Before The Sun Rises

Corn Woman’s Task by Sandi J. Ludescher

Corn Woman’s Task by Sandi J. Ludescher

Awake before the sun rises;

Bleary-eyed still resolute

No thanks are offered for her toil.

As she nudges her brood from slumber,

Calloused hands stroke the hair of her babies.

To gentle voice and loving words they wake

Casting acknowledging smiles skyward.

The aromatic scent of cornbread wafts from afar,

Inviting even at this early hour, tickling their tiny noses.

Ritual plays itself out day after day, morning after morning,

She would have it no other way.

This brood, her pride and joy is her life, her love, all that she lives for.

Every wrinkle like a path through time,

Each hair of gray that adorns her head

Are worn with pride and concern for them.

Her destiny and birthright lay before her, born for the love of her Brave…

These are her legacy.

What greater gift could a mother leave this world than her children, her culture

And Mother earth just as she found her.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Prompt: Jeremy’s Daily Challenge – Picture This Monday 23 June

 

Innocent Victims

Innocent victims

Children gone without a trace

We know the villains

Cowards preying on the young

Where is the world outrage

Each time it happens

It falls further down the screen

A ticker–its home

How sad we’ve become immune

To the plight of the helpless

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Although They’re Older

Although they’re older

Children still seek approval

It’s human nature

Do not be too judgemental

Or you will push them away

What a tragedy

And a travesty this is

To our flesh and blood

These are wounds that do not heal

Because we need to be right

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

#BringBackOurGirls (Acrostic)

Blinded by time as we always are,

Resolved to forget the distasteful,

Ignoring that which is too painful,

No amount of justification is acceptable for this behavior.

Gathering around Beyonce, JayZ and Solange…is this news?

 

Bling and elevator drama are these really important?

Anger and outrage should be the response;

Children, our future–that is what’s important!

Kidnappers, inhuman animals, they should be our news.

 

Our mission, yours and mine.

Undermining peace through fear

Revealing their true selves…they are cowards and thugs.

 

Getting these girls back should be our only focus;

Innocence demands it!

Regaining focus, putting the frivolous aside, this is our human mission.

Let us unite as one world regardless of race, creed or color and…

Stop those that prey on the innocent, the helpless, OUR CHILDREN!

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Author’s Note:  I wrote this piece because I am troubled with how quickly the story of the kidnapped school girls in Nigeria has dropped from the headlines of our major media outlets, at least here in the United States.  Instead we have replaced it, once again, with “celebrity” nonsense stories that have no importance to anyone except for the voyeurs out there.   Only by keeping these children in the forefront of our hearts and minds can we ever hope to muster the worldwide resources necessary to bring them home and affect some permanent change in the attitudes of those that I don’t consider civilized.

Some Say It Is A Window Into The Soul

Some say it is a window into the soul,

But me…well, I don’t know

I run, I jump, I laugh and cajole

As though I’m putting on a show.

 

The youth in me knows not this bodies age,

Ignoring the aches and the pains.

Like a Mad Hatter on the Phantoms stage,

Tossing aside my horses reins.

 

Playing in the grass, flying kites high in the sky,

Living for just having fun.

Juvenile maybe, lets just say that I try,

Hoping for much longer from where I’d begun.

 

This is how I choose to live a fairytale life,

One of fullness, prosperity and joy.

Living without the stress and the mind numbing strife,

That so many chose to employ.

 

Then a look in the mirror reveals an inevitable truth,

That no one can run from their age.

Bags and wrinkles are not things of one’s youth,

As each year turns the next page.

 

In my minds eye I’m still the same person I was

O’ those many years gone by.

Only the blind would be ignorant of the cause,

No matter how hard they may try.

 

So the moral to this story is one I believe

To live in happiness and in peace.

Keep the child in your heart, never to cleave,

And your elation will surely increase.

 

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Prompt: Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie – Fairytale Prompt #7

The Church Bell Tolls

The church bells toll

Another mother soaked in tears

Another child gone too soon

A shot rang out in the dark

No one heard, no one saw

Just an unnamed face on an urban street

Victim of the violence that thins the herd

Taking a precious piece of our future with it

Cries drowned out with claims of infringement

What then is their answer

Do nothing

An eye for an eye

A gun for more guns

Their solutions absurd

Do we not live in a civilized age

This screams for a change of culture

Banishing hopelessness and despair

Curing symptoms not the disease

With reassurance and help

The offer of a hand when times are tough

Lip service pays them no homage

Hate and mistrust are it’s only spawn

Action in word and deed the only vaccine

Not changing with the times breeds failure

Failure of us all

Failure of the Grand Experiment

~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Voracity for Change

In the darkened halls etched with golden finery,

Do you admit the secrets they hold,

Shrouded in the shrouds of your jeweled cassocks?

.

For how many centuries has this debauchery been veiled?

How many unchaste Satans lay in your webbed catacombs,

Venerated by the ignorant and blind?

.

This is not an indictment of the faithful, the many tended sheep in your flock,

They are the innocent men and women…and child victims,

Venerated as martyrs before the universal mother.

.

Have you forgotten your roots, roots steeped in love and in service?

Not service to yourselves for its benefit, but service to the thirsty progeny

Who you’ve nourished with scandal and dust.

.

Knowingly, the devils amongst you receive shelter…You are evil as they!

You can not hide your sins from God Almighty, you immoral men!

Utter hypocrisy flows through your narrowed veins as sacramental wine.

 

Your restitution rings hollow…what of the innocence you’ve so ravaged?

Your treasures buy not your redemption– for the trustful can ne’er be whole again.

You vipers!…The solemnity of your vows lay thrashed by the Reaper.

.

Heads bowed on bended knee– tears for transformation fall with no retort.

They ask not for scriptural emendation, only boundness before the Lord.

In consumptive fashion, pomp preempts substance from this Cardinal clan.

.

What mold anewed will you lay before the disconsolate altar of the faithful?

Would it not be fair to portend that there will be nothing of substance to behold?

Only time will avow your voracity for change.

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Gone (Triple Tetractys)

Gone

My Youth

My Freedom

The adventure

Giving way to a cautious existence

~

The price we pay for our maturation

If we let it

Restricting

Joyless

Dead

~

Fight

Rise up

Remember

Your days gone by

While breathing it is not too late to live

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

We Gather Here Today (Poem Read At Grandmother’s Funeral)

My Grandparents Wedding Picture 1930

My Grandparents Wedding Picture 1930

We gather here today in mourning and in tears

Just as tradition dictates we must

Saddened to have lost one we all held so dear

Into the hands of God, her soul we do trust

~

We grieve–as a way of dealing with our heartfelt loss

But wouldn’t celebration of an extraordinary life be best

To be honored and have loved is priceless at its cost

Yet our faith will most surely be put to the test

~

In the midst of our sorrow we must look for the good

At this life lived so full and so well

Surely she would want this, I believe that she would

As our angel in heaven tolls the bell

~

I’ve pondered these thoughts both long and hard

Feeling blessed for having known her all my years

While many have known her longer and held her in highest regard

Very few could be held as her peer

~

I think of the things that she saw while she lived

Horse and carriage and car shared the road

The tango took hold and its popularity thrived

Halley’s comet appeared with a tail that did glow

~

These are just a few of the things that took place

All within the year of her birth

The Boy Scouts established to this year can be traced

For however much or little its worth

~

A few years down the road and the world was at war

For the first, but unfortunately not the last

The Panama Canal finally opened its doors

With the indestructible Titanic going down fast

~

Prohibition arrives with all glasses going dry

Women finally won the right to vote

The Charleston becomes a hit why not give it a try

Babe Ruth hits the home run high note

~

Then marrying the gent with whom she’d share all her time

A tall and swarthy olive skinned man

Handsome, debonair and genuinely kind

A perfect compliment for this lady so grand

~

Not only did love grow, but the staircases climbed

The Empire State Building’s grandeur completed

Our National Anthem made official–so sublime

The Wizard of Oz premiered that’s now so oft repeated

~

Soon three children arrived who she cherished all of her days

No other event in her history could compare

By the grace of God all three of them are here with us today

To celebrate the life she was kind enough to share

~

Then the war to end all wars the second had begun

Separating this young mother from her true love

Left alone to raise her brood once two she now was one

With courage and a strength from up above

~

The smile of fate shone upon wife and mother oh so young

Bringing back the husband and father to his home

The rest of his life he spent working hard–unsung

Staying with her and raising their kids never again did he roam

~

Then the fifties roared in with Korea in conflict

McCarthy began his hunt and his war

The picture in color the television did inflict

Princess Elizabeth the Queen takes center floor

~

Walt Disney opens his land and his first jeweled crown

James Dean sadly passes away in a crash

Elvis’ gyrations bring Sullivan’s curtains tumbling down

While Castro dictates with his promises so brash

~

Then the first of her children has a child so dear

Most surely the apple of her eye

A lovely little girl like her mother its clear

No better could she have done had she tried

~

But no this was not to be last by any stretch

A boy this time was in the offing

The second of the grands her heart he did fetch

Topping this would be a feet ever so lofty

~

Then a iron strong wall dividing Berlin was built

JFK speaks of the “Man on the Moon”

A crisis in Cuba armed with missiles to the hilt

A President’s life taken way too soon

~

Amongst all of the chaos another grand is born

The first to her youngest and his wife

Coming about the time that the Beatles hit our shore

Giving joy to a sad and turbulent life

~

The U.S. sent its troops to a place called Vietnam

To fight in a most unpopular war

Then the fourth grand is born to Dad and Mom

In the year the first Super Bowl scores

~

In the following year a King left the room

And another Kennedy too

Armstrong became the first man on the moon

While the dream of Woodstock came true

~

Then in the year from Vietnam we came home

The final baby grand entered the world

A beautiful little girl to the family they had grown

Before her the red carpet unfurled

~

The stage has now been set for many more years

Her grands had babies of their own

The lights of her life that she held oh so dear

Guaranteed she would never be alone

~

How amazing it turned out that her line was not complete

Great grandchildren gave her great great grand children to hold

So few have been blessed and fewer still will repeat

This fairy tale that has seldom been told

~

We all have been rewarded to have had her for so long

In our hearts, our minds and our souls

Even with her passing this love will never be gone

We must hold her memory to fill in the holes

~

This dear friends and family is why I illustrate

With amazement in all she lived through

Yes I’m filled with sadness, but in joy celebrate

With envy at the wonders that she knew

~

I remember with great fondness her kind and gentle heart

Not one callous bone did she hold

Today is not an ending, but a new and hallowed start

To be traveled in death as her life had foretold

~

Her belief in God, no her true love of the Lord

I’m sure gave her great comfort in the end

So much can be learned, much more than we can afford

Her faith unwavering did not bend

~

Mom Mom Bea–this simple tribute is the least I can do

To selfishly comfort my sorrowed heart and mind

Sweet lady–I bid you farewell with the fondest adieu

One whose life with great love I’ve enshrined

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

~

AUTHOR’S NOTE:  This is the poem that I read at the funeral for my grandmother earlier this week.  Some of you had asked if I would post the poem I read in the church and after giving it some thought and getting my parents blessing (I felt I should make sure they were not opposed to it) here it is.  So many things happened in the world during her 103 years.  I hope that you enjoy it.