On Mother’s Day, this libretto excerpt is offered to those who were lucky enough to have had what I call, “a beautiful, imperfectly-perfect mother,” but one who too early passed from this world… especially hard when she has been the ground note for her sons and daughters. Some of us did not have a mother we can remember without fear, but that doesn’t keep us from recognizing a special bond between many mothers and their children wherever we see it… and blessing that it came to pass for them.
This is just to place a hand on the shoulders of those who might miss their mothers, only for a moment to say, even though your mom is gone, even though we don’t know one another face-to-face, many of us who are living mothers and grandmothers (and fathers and grandfathers, and just plain good souls who scan the world with prayer every day) … we are thinking of you …
WHEN A GOOD MOTHER SAILS FROM THIS WORLD
When I say, “My mother has died”,
I mean my “most beloved”.
Leave me to myself now,
for I am a ship who’s
lost her riggings;
suddenly
come unmoored.
… my mother has died;
She has earned her resting now,
waiting only, and proudly so,
for her sails
to be taken down.
I, the daughter,
mend my mother’s sails;
I seek her
worn and broken
threads of light,
reweaving her dazzling linen…
And though there be broken threads
not able to be rewoven,
I will gently pull the edges together
and stitch one side to the other…
and if not able to be mended,
then I will patch with parts
from my most earnest life
over the places where my mother’s life
was worn through,
. . . or never was.
The sails of the mother
are to be fitted to the daughtership;
raised up on the mainsail,
and the final touch –
the red ragged flag – hers –
will be flying at the topmast of my ship.
I’ll be let down into the waters,
I, the daughter, will glide again,
but this time, under the sails
inherited from my mother,
and all the mothers
before her.
Ay, Mother, let me tell you
my treasured dearie-dear,
one last thing I have learned
from your spirit passing through me,
as sparkling shadow passes darkening shadow,
on this open night-sea journey…
I am learning to navigate
by the mysterious farthest stars –
the ones that the great wake of your passing
has revealed to me
…for the very first time…
“I will see you in the morning,” I say,
“my sweet little mother, my most excellent omah,
I will see you in the new morning”, I say,
to someone who is weeping…
Muchisimas gracias, mi mamá;
Be with The Aeternal Mothers now,
“I will see you in the morning,” I say,
…just…
…one…
…tiny…
…bedazzle…
…from…
…now…
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This is an except from a libretto called woman.life.song commissioned by Jessye Norman, played by the New York Symphony Orchestra and sung by selfsame great mezzo-soprano JN; musical score by Judith Weir, British composer. The libretto was written by what some have since called, Las Tres Lobas: Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and myself. We debuted it in music, song and spoken word performance at Carnegie Hall in 2000. It was performed at London’s Prince Albert Hall and at the Salzburg Festival. The full libretto is licensed and performed by various orchestras, singers, and poets throughout the world.
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WHEN A GOOD MOTHER SAILS FROM THIS WORLD (excerpt/ rev.) © 1980, 2000, 2007, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., All Rights Reserved, is printed here under Creative Commons License by which author grants permission to copy, distribute and transmit this particular work under the conditions that the use be non-commercial, that the work be used in its entirety and not altered, added to, or subtracted from, and that it be attributed with author’s name and this full copyright notice. For other uses, contact copyright holder.