Mother's Commonplace Book

Both my mother and grandmother clipped things from magazines and newspapers or copied them, pasting and saving them in notebooks. When I was a little girl I would sit in a quiet spot and read what she had saved--poems, articles, proverbs, sayings. Most reflected what she believed. The earliest clipping was 1946--a cartoon of Father Time holding the leftovers of WWII handing the bewildered Baby 1946 a broom with an apology--the latest 1999. My niece Julie copied her notebook and distributed it among family members. I just noticed tonight that the size notebook she used, about 6 x 8, is the size I use for my blogging notes.

This one she typed out, and titled it "The Watcher-Mother." I looked it up on the internet, and found it with the author's name and a different title. This poem doesn't reflect Mother's parenting style--but it's pretty accurate for her own mother.

Watching for Us [The Watcher-Mother]

She always leaned to watch for us,
Anxious if we were late,
In the winter by the window,
In summer by the gate;

And though we mocked her tenderly,
Who had such foolish care,
The long way home would seem more safe
Because she waited there.

Her thoughts were all so full of us--
She never could forget!
And so I think that where she is
She must be watching yet.

Waiting till we come home to her,
Anxious if we are late--
Watching from Heaven's window,
Leaning from Heaven's gate.

-Margaret Widdemer

Margaret Widdemer (1884-1978) graduated from Drexel Institute Library School in 1909. She wrote both protest poetry (some still used in women's literature classes) and sentimental verse. She also wrote novels and short stories. Looking through some things she wrote, I also see an interest in death and "the other side." The wife in her novel "Rose Garden Husband" is a librarian. In 1919 she shared the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry with Carl Sandburg.