This Sacred Space 

Mother’s love traverses 
Time and place and even 
Heaven’s boundary. 
Childhood sacred moments flicker, 
Silver on memory’s screen: 
Singing away tears— 
Oh how you loved your teddy bear; 
Reading me The Princess Bride to 
Chase away weeks of illness; 
Pictures from before I remember, 
Sleeping in your arms’ protection. 

My own grown children still need 
Their mom and her 
Fierce, ferocious love that 
Knows no boundaries, 
Will never end. 
Sometimes she wishes she 
Could turn it off, 
But not really, she can’t. 
She carried them in a way 
No one else ever can. 
Not even me, and I 
Carried them a lot, these 
Monkeys on my back. 

This is transcendent, these 
Angels rising from the ashes 
Of all that is broken and cruel, 
Sent to nurture us, 
To carry us through life 
On their shoulders. 
To love us through our unloveliness to 
Show the world the gem she sees. 

Sunlight filters through a 
Break in the curtains, 
Carries away the baggage. 
I am left to remember, 
To cherish 
This sacred space, 
These mother’s arms, 
Where God himself once rested.


David K. Carpenter 
May 9, 2021 
Happy Mother’s Day to Kristin, one of my favorite moms; 
In loving memory of my other two favorite moms: 
Nancy Carpenter and Patricia Little

Copyright © 2021 by David K. Carpenter, All Rights Reserved 

Happy Mother’s Day, to all the angels we call Mom.