Mother

You are the first land our feet tread,

the sky that stays awake when night falls.

You are not only the one who gives life,

but the refuge where life learns not to fear.

Your voice is the wind that straightens the ears of corn,

your embrace the harbor where any storm calms.

You hold in the palms of your hands the sun that warms us,

and in your gaze, a horizon that never closes.

You carry in your heart a garden that knows no winter,

where the strength you lack grows.

You are the memory that sustains us,

the invisible thread that, even when we stray,

never breaks.

Sometimes you are a river that runs silent and deep,

sometimes a mountain firm against any gale.

Always the same love, rooted, made home,

made all that makes us human.

 And when the world weighs too heavily,

all I have to do is return to you,

to find my way again,

to find peace,

to find the place where I am whole.

GRACIELA NOEMI VILLAVERDE is a writer and poet from Concepción del Uruguay (Entre Rios) Argentina. Based in Buenos Aires, she graduated in letters and is the author of seven books in the poetry genre, awarded several times worldwide. She works as World Manager of Educational and Social Projects of the Hispanic World Union of Writers, and UHE World Honorary President of the Activa de la Sade, Argentine Society of Writers. She’s a Commissioner of Honor in the executive cabinet in the Educational and Social Relations Division of the UNACCC South America, Argentina Chapter.