Your father cannot speak!(check it out,please)

[formality hater]

How a dumb(speechless) father feels, when he sees his child taking his first few steps:



He's walking on his own,
I can see that he's glad,
But he cannot see,
His move is creating,
A violence in me,
I am dreading the day,
When he would talk to me,
He would see that I,
Am too ill to speak,
"O father, do talk",
He would utter, I know,
But my words would be muffled,
And savagely burn my throat,
I cannot face him,
Not today,not never,
But if my voice wouldn't reach him,
His ears will crave,
I've haven't heard it myself.,
I can neither talk nor speak,
Forgive me my dear son,
But you are growing up,
How very early it seems,
And one day you'll ask,
And I won't respond,
A smile or a wave,
May satisfy your soul!

.............................................
Comments and suggestions would be appreciated!:)

[motherhubbard]

I have often considered how difficult it would be if I were deaf or mute. (is mute more polite than dumb, it just sounds mean). But I never considered that my children would want to hear my voice, only that I would want to hear theirs. I think children can read faces better than voices. Thank you for sharing these feelings with us. Your poem was full of emotion and I think you brave for telling. Are you unable to speak and can you hear?

[formality hater]

I have often considered how difficult it would be if I were deaf or mute. (is mute more polite than dumb, it just sounds mean). But I never considered that my children would want to hear my voice, only that I would want to hear theirs. I think children can read faces better than voices. Thank you for sharing these feelings with us. Your poem was full of emotion and I think you brave for telling. Are you unable to speak and can you hear?

Oh,thanks for liking it ,and I agree that "Dumb" sounds mean but that is the scientific,and much recognizeable term for mute(wonder why?).I can very well hear and speak but I know someone who cannot,and that's where the inspiration came from!:)

[ampoule]

And here I thought he meant speechless because he was overcome with emotion at seeing his son walk for the first time and later too choked up to talk. You see Formality Hater, this poem is full of beautiful emotion for me and though I didn't get it in the true sense, I got it in my sense....if that makes sense.
And I feel that yes, a smile and a wave can indeed reach someone's soul.
I teach the hula and I explain to my dancers that their facial expressions are just as important as their hand motions. Another thing hula dancers are supposed to do is mouth the words. All of these things tell the story, not just the voice.

[Pendragon]

I have myself learned to read lips and partialy understand ASL. I have had experience with the people who cannot hear, one graduated with me from my Community Collage with highest honors. She did have a helper to translate for her, though she could understand me if I spoke slowly enough for her to read my lips. Accent does change how our lips form the words. This is a wonderful poem in tribute to your friend, abd you are kind to write it for him or her!

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/AbsalomKane/Smilies/Bravo.gif

Pen

[Pensive]

I have really liked it very much, formality! This is my favourite part: (the emotions are very striking over here)


He would see that I,
Am too ill to speak,
"O father, do talk",
He would utter, I know,
But my words would be muffled,
And savagely burn my throat,

And I have liked how this father can't grasp the idea of facing his son at first but then after sometime, he realises that his son would want to hear him and decides that he wouldn't be able to stand not facing him, and finds an alternative in the shape of face expressions. The whole thinking process was very well-written over here:


I cannot face him,
Not today,not never,
But if my voice wouldn't reach him,
His ears will crave,
I've haven't heard it myself.,
I can neither talk nor speak,
Forgive me my dear son,
But you are growing up,
How very early it seems,
And one day you'll ask,
And I won't respond,
A smile or a wave,
May satisfy your soul!

[Sweets America]

Oh, I understood this poem as Ampoule did! I didn't take it literally, I thought it was dealing with the emotions of the father in front of his child that was learning to walk on his own, and I thought that the father was thinking how communication would sometimes be difficult as the child would grow up, and that he dreaded the moment when the child would live his own life and walk away from him. To me, it conveyed the desperation of the father who sometimes doesn't know how to communicate feelings to his child. So, I didn't understand it the right way, but I still liked what I understood of it!:D

[formality hater]

Thank you everyone for your comments and ampoule and Sweets America,you are right in taking it in your own meaning,because this is what poetry is all about:Finding your "own" reflection in the verses!

I hope others find it worth COMMENTING too.Good or bad,I am not concerned!;)

[PrinceMyshkin]

It's a wonderful poem and an example of poetry as a spiritual activity in the sense of your empathy wit the father in this. I remember something my own father said when he was trying to persuade me to pick up my high-school marks so that I might make it into university. He was an immigrant who'd been obliged to quit high-school and go to work, and he said how he had this one misgiving about me going on to university, that I might begin to use words he didn't uinderstand and we wouldn't be able to talk with each other.

[CrazyZorro]

I thought that this was really good. I am 14 and since I left my dad to live with my mom he is like this father not able to say anything because he sees that I am growing up, true it's alittle different but also very much the same.

[formality hater]

Thankx a lot Princemyshkin and CrazyZorro(a warm welcome to you)!