By Stanley Collymore

Thanks for giving birth to me; and if perchance that
wasn’t what actually happened and consequently,
as I see it, regrettably for me you couldn’t have
attained the personal and deserved status of
being my biological mother thanks all the
same for what indisputably you cleverly,
diligently, efficiently and altruistically
assumed, scrupulously embarked on
and totally achieved, in what were
perceptibly specific circumstances, a committedly
decided upon remit of being the next best thing
to actually conceiving me. And doing so in a
resolute manner that could only have been
so comprehensively, consummately and
constructively undertaken by someone
who not only gamely but also quite
deservingly and enduringly falls
into that exclusively illustrious
category of being absolutely
the most sincerely commendable parent
and mother that any child, and most
notably someone like me, could
expectantly have aspired to
having and, what’s more
fortunately and most
gratifyingly in the
process as well
then managed
to procure!

© Stanley V. Collymore
3 March 2016.

Author’s Remarks:
This poem: “The incomparable Lady I dearly love and appreciatively and proudly call Mum”, while specifically in enthusiastic and unembarrassed recognition of, loving dedication to and an enduring tribute to my birth mother Louise without whom and in the otherwise absence of her rapturous, dedicatedly involved, reciprocally affectionate, energetically emotional and intensely physical, I’ve been told, union with my biological father I would definitely not have been here, but most thankfully from me for their incisive sagacity most demonstrably complimented too in them lovingly and rather touchingly getting together with one another and unquestionably doing the necessary business with each other - if you get my inferred meaning and where exactly I’m coming from– I am, and forthrightly taking into total consideration all their discernibly and beyond doubt sterling work, most delighted– well you would expect me to say that wouldn’t you?(smile) - to emphatically announce that their enterprise wasn’t in vain and I’m very much present.

However, this poetic dedication is likewise with the same unencumbered love and unswerving appreciation bountifully bestowed as well on all the female members of my fantastically warm, hugely diverse and perceptibly extended biological family who either individually, collectively but always in their own inimitable and, for me, welcoming ways from childhood well into my adulthood and ongoingly so in several cases continue to constructively and positively “mother” me. Thank you all for what you’ve done in the past and still encouragingly carry on doing.

Finally, to those of you who’ve not been as fortunate as I’ve certainly been or who sadly have never known what a mother’s love is, my deepest sympathies are with you and particularly on this upcoming Mother’s Day. But if it so happens you’ve subsequently become a mother, I do sincerely hope that you’ll do everything in your power to let those whom you’ve brought into this world experience not simply what you’ve missed out on but likewise positively engender in them the true enjoyment of parenthood, and do so uniformly from the prospective of both a mother and also a father’s love.