Sestina for Virginia

(Sestina - six six-line stanzas ending with a tercet. The last words on each line in the first stanza are repeated as the last words in the following stanzas, in a defined order. All six key words also appear in the tercet, three as end words and one in the middle of each line. The last word of a stanza ends the first line in the next stanza. Finally, the last word of the poem repeats the last word of the first line.)


We claim her our mother
From whom we learned love
All seven of her children
She took care of her life garden
For her it bloomed flowers
But she was first a woman

She was first his woman
Then everyone's mother
Virtuous as her flowers
Her legacy the love
In the tangle of life's garden
Blessings brought by children

Be grateful ye children
She is in everything a woman
Give to her the garden
From where arise Earth Mother
To get love, give love
And then shall they flower

"Farewell", she said to her flowers
"Where to?", she asked her children
Baking bread the grandchildren loved
But she weeps, this woman
Who remembers little of her mother
Even as she tilled in her garden

Bloom where you may in life's garden
Forever fragrant your flowers
My precious and beauteous mother
It matters not where, to us children
You be your own woman
Just this remains - our love

It's all that matters - this love
Wherever you plant your garden
Be all you can be, Woman
Live life like sunshine on flowers
Your children remain your children
And you their mother

Gifts of endless love and flowers
Garden of hope, children's children
Live long Renaissance Woman, Happy 85th, Mother!