Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – Maria Keller

July 20, 2006

This is a poem I wrote for my daughter.  10 years ago I had to leave the State of Florida and leave my daughter behind with her father.  Her father would not consent to her leaving with me, and I could not continue to stay there.  I refused to subject her to being the subject of a custody battle. 

The name of the poem is "I Freed You" and it is written in a format that goes 1-to-6, which means the first stanza is 1 line and builds up to six lines in the last stanza.  It is also possibly song lyrics.  I do have some "music running through my mind" that goes with this. 

My daughter was always very independent from when she was a tiny baby.   As soon as she could, unlike her two brothers who loved to be cuddled and hugged constantly, she was always struggling to get free of that and get out and explore her little world, even before she could walk!  

As mothers, we all do the best that we can, even though that sometimes means "the wrong thing" in the eyes of society.  By the time I agreed to let my daughter's dad raise her, I was too weak to fight.  And in any case, having worked for divorce lawyers as a secretary for many years, I believed it WAS in her best interests not to have a custodial battle over her.  Anyway here is the poem....

I Freed You 1-to-6

Maria Keller

I freed you.

I freed you.

So you could be what you were meant to be.

Though they said you were a clone of me.

I knew the first time I held you in my arms

You were spirit, and your destiny was to be free.

I freed you.

Through a rough and tumble life

Confusion as your companion.

You toughened up and found your own direction.

I freed you.

So you could have stability.

You can make your own choices.

I'll proud stand, watching from afar.

Loving you in ways you cannot now fathom.

Some will say I abdicated responsibility.

But they are not you, nor are they me.

My faith is perfect that you are safe.

Mothers can't be everywhere

so they invented God

to watch over you in every moment.

Copyright 2004 by Maria Keller, sommerTN@hotmail.com

All rights reserved.