© Kathryn Tisdale and The Mandala Pattern, 2010

Sonnets are full of love
Christina Rossetti (1881)

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.

Today is my mom’s birthday.  Here she is as a wee one.  Loved then.  Loved now.

Joyce

(The source photo for Mom’s Birthday Mandala was taken along the Detroit River at the Red Bull Races Sunday, June 6.)

Swallowtail Mandala - detail

Swallowtail Mandala - source photo