Recorded Books Inc. - Dear mother poems on the hot mess of motherhood

The magic of motherhood is how it manages to drain and fill you at once and always when you need it the most. In her first collection of poetry, Bunmi Laditan captures the honesty, rawness, sheer joy and total chaos of motherhood. With the compassion and wit that made her a social media sensation among mothers around the world, Laditan puts into evocative and relatable words what so many of us feel but cant quite express. For mothers who love their children with a fiery fierceness but know what it is to feel crushed at the end of those long days, Dear Mother is like a warm hug that says, I get it. Bunmi Laditan is an award-winning, Webby-nominated writer from California who lives in Quebec, Canada, with her family. Dear Mother is her first collection of poetry. www.BunmiLaditan.com DEAR
MTHER Poems on the Hot Mess of Motherhood Bunmi Laditan to the One who loves me
and knows me by name Contents

Where can you find my heart? It is no longer locked away afraid of the cold world. www.BunmiLaditan.com DEAR
MTHER Poems on the Hot Mess of Motherhood Bunmi Laditan to the One who loves me
and knows me by name Contents Where can you find my heart? It is no longer locked away afraid of the cold world.

You wont find it racing to keep up with what strangers want me to be. Nor is it attached to my sleeve ready to be broken by a harsh word or glance. My heart can be found hidden in the small, plump hand of this child I call mine who cares not what I look like or have achieved but wants only to rest in my arms until dawn breaks. The audacity of a childs demands for love are only matched by the ridiculous depths of the love their parents have for them What kind of magic enchants the well of motherhood? Mere hours after my ragged bucket scraped the last drops of mercy from the echoey depths I find myself once again at my childs bedside hypnotized by a face so breathtakingly serene And as I slide my hand across the softest of cheeks somewhere inside me I feel the waters that hours ago had been depleted begin to rise Most days I wake up tired No longer young and excited to see the sun rise But when I see your sleepy face and hold your pajamaed body warm and heavy from a long nights sleep I find the strength to give today a chance MOTHERHOOD HAS TAUGHT ME THAT LOVE IS NOT A FEELING IT IS A BURNING DESIRE TO TRY A LITTLE HARDER THAN I DID YESTERDAY When I squeeze you hold your small body in mine my wounds stop bleeding and the dull ache of adulthood for a moment ceases to throb you, my child, are the antidote to this life What does it mean to be a mother? Is the role defined by the cleaning, cooking, scheduling, kissing, the tired hugs, the stories read? The truth is that anyone can do that but not everyone lies awake in the dark staring at your face begging the angels to cover you with their wings. As you grow into the person you were meant to be remember, my love, that its okay to slip fall fail cry lose come in dead last sit this one out with your head in your hands You cant disappoint me as you walk these slippery rocks of life for I adored you before you knew what medals were and applauded your heartbeat and first breath as magnificent victories If theres one truth I want you to know tuck into your heart and seal with my kiss its that I dont love you because youre perfect I love you because youre mine On days I dont feel loved evenings I drown in my solitude sure that no ones heart will ever flutter at my presence again you run into my arms and remind me that to someone I am everything To embrace my child is to feel my entire body come alive with the kind of love I thought was only reserved for fairy tales How can it be that the entire world tells me a million ways that Im not enough but you my child even if you could wouldnt change a thing To me there is nothing more beautiful than a tired mother making room on her lap for a child who wants only to melt into the safety of her warmth I know I may forget this day how you look in those little blue overalls but please God dont let me ever forget the sound of my childs laughter Motherhood opened up the floodgates and filled my deepest wells with watery emotion leaving me soft and ready to spill buckets of salty sentiment at the slightest provocation whether it be a baby koala clinging to his mothers back at the zoo or a well-worded commercial For Mothers Day I dont want you to spend very much. Kindly bottle the scent of our babys skin fresh out of the bath so I can wear it like perfume.

Wrap his toddlerhood in shiny paper topped with a red bow so that I can return to any moment I please after hes flown away leaving me with only echoes. Ill also take his giggle in a golden locket and six frozen baby kisses sloppy openmouthed wet against my cheek that I can defrost as needed. And would it be too bold to ask for a glove that allows me to always feel his hand in mine? When I tell a man I love you I mean You make me happy. When I tell my children I love you I mean I would burn it all down to warm your feet. I weave my love around you, child a thick warm blanket stitched with my veins stuffed with my breath sealed with my kiss so that if one day they tell you you are not good enough youll know theyre lying An angel told me that love is the most powerful force in the universe and I didnt believe until I saw steel bend wood burn brick shatter into dust and a mother at 4:21 a.m., who had already risen more times than she cared to know, hear her childs cry and rise again You were not born of my body but from the depths of my heart my little seedling planted in the soft earth of my soul I dont need to own your tangled roots to water them No matter what storms may pass I will be your sun singing warm melodies as you grow stalks and leaves reaching toward the clouded sky green skin against the pale blue and white tomorrow How blessed I am to have this flower in my garden children dont just grow up they also grow out first spilling out of your arms then your lap then their car seats and clothes but take heart, love, because the one thing they can never grow out of is your heart I want you to grow sail, fly, soar but baby promise me that every so often youll return to the nest and let me look at your wings

Once upon an evening early, while I Netflixed weak and surly Into many a full and mixerless glass of Jack Daniels poured While I faded, body rocking, suddenly there came a knocking And the sound of someone talking, talking when its time to snore Tis my tod-dl-er, I muttered, knocking at my bedroom door, And with that, I gently swore Ah, distinctly I remember, how my hope did so dismember As the sleepy child entered like a ghost declaring war Eagerly I wished for the morrow-or a place without such sorrow Turned my head to heaven wishing, wishing I could sleep some more Sleep. The rare and radiant maiden whom the toddler made folklore Never here forevermore And with that, I gently swore MOTHERHOOD REQUIRES MORE SACRIFICE THAN I REALIZED AND EVEN M O RE CARB O HYDRATES If muffin tops are the best part mothers are delicious Next page