SMOKE SIGNALS

..Is the name of a must see film about fatherhood. The following poem runs across the credits at the end. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

HOW DO WE FORGIVE OUR FATHERS?

…maybe in a dream,

Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often

Or forever

When we were little,

Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage

Or making us nervous

Because there never seemed to be any rage there at all.

Do we forgive our fathers for marrying

Or not marrying our mothers,

For divorcing

Or not divorcing our mothers.

And shall we forgive them

For their excesses of warmth or coldness,

Shall we forgive them for pushing

Or leaning,

For shutting doors

For speaking through walls,

Or never speaking

Or never being silent.

Do we forgive our fathers

In our age

Or in theirs,

Or in their deaths.

Saying it to them

Or not saying it.

If we forgive our fathers

What is left…

FOR ALL FATHERS ON FATHERS DAY

A POEM FOR DAD

I never did sing for my father,

While he could hear,

Nor did I dance for him

That he might see me celebrate

His strength, courage, integrity.

For far too long

Did I imagine him against me,

And so decided

To be against him.

He did not love me

In ways I wanted,

I needed him closer  

To set me straight.

I grew crooked 

Without his attention..

Remembering him now though, 

Straightens me.

My father never quit a thing,

Complained, or shed a tear

 For himself.

Holes in his socks,

A drunken wife,

Five children and he stayed.

I never honored my father

For pulling the wagon

That was his family, 

Dutifully day after thankless day.

My immigrant father,

Peasant farmer,

Cosack survivor,

Who measured men from the neck up..

after 96 years

has finally fallen.

I sit with him in his final hours

With nothing left to say.

He is gone without a word,

to that place i don’t exist,

I place my hand upon his once broad forearm

and shed a parting tear.. and suddenly,

 “He’s Awake!”

And startled back to here and now.

“I know you! “ he exclaims,

Surprised and glad to see me.

“Why you’re my number two son, Harvey!”

A leap of heart,

A flood of joy,

An ocean of tears..

All I ever really wanted from my father

Was for him to know who I was.

Hello dad,

Goodbye dad..