Dear Mum and Dad
I carry you in my heart and head
for I neither believe
and most certainly hope
that you not looking down
from some heavenly crows-nest
for most of your lives
you did not believe either
and your latter-day church going
was, I think, more social
– a way to integrate in
the many places you moved to
but your taking us to church
not only gave us the choice
but sharpened my scepticism
into a personal humanist credo
according to which
I carry you in my heart and head
I thank you, Mum
for refusing to teach me to cook
reserving that for my sisters
and for launching my student cuisine
with the gift of a Sabbatier knife
and the condescending choice
of “Cooking in a Bedsit”
which made me seek out
the racier author Elizabeth David
sailing round the Med with her married man
garnering recipes to change
the cooking of a nation
and Dad, though you never
took me sailing, you taught me
to whip finish a rope and splice an eye
to coil a cable neatly and I took
pride in your designing a dinghy
and slipped into design too
I carry you in my heart and head
but I wanted to make concrete
these, amongst many things
I am grateful you gave me
– to put them out into the world
just as you birthed and shaped me…
© Andrew Wilson, 2026
You can read more about my parents in my last year’s A to Z
https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-2025-challenge-dad-draughtsman-designer/
https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-2025-challenge-elsie-jill-mum/
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Laura Bloomsbury in Meeting the Bar: Critique and Craft, invites us to write an Epistolary Poem, either as a Verse Epistle, or, as I have chosen to do, a Prose Poetry Epistle. I will also share this with my Ten Things of Thankful group…
That’s a lovely photo of your parents, Andrew, and an interesting and unusual tribute to them in your epistolary poem.
Yes, that was before i was born, Kim! I have written quite a bit about the plusses and minusses of what i got from my parents, but participating in the TToF has inclined me to see most things a s plusses on account of where things lead to – even if they seem negative at the time…
The past sure looks different seen with a grateful heart. And specifcs like these are essential.
Thanks, Brendan…
Great poem. Perhaps they were struggling as young parents and had different ideas of parenthood.
Sounds like your parents laid the fountain of thoughts. I grew up in a different time and scenario. . A lot of minus…
Sorry to hear that Truedessa, did you grow through the difficult start?
No doubt, Cai…
a timely letter of gratitude, Andrew -looking back from your vantage/advantage point
Thanks, Laura, I am still developing the art of gratitude…
Love where you journeyed in this poetic letter, Andrew. You look very much like your father.
Thanks, Helen – that’s not something people ever say – I am usually the one taking the pictures and not great on selfies and I suppose I have rarely posted pictures of my father either…
Reading this, I’m reminded how much the things we experience, intended or not, shape who we become. It feels like that’s true for you too, and you’ve captured it beautifully here.
I have certainly got that from reading your A to Z’s over the years, Tamara, Your various jobs, motherhood – thank you for looking beyond the A to Z posts too…
So touching and beautiful.
Thanks, Marilyn…
Andrew, your affection comes through and you are polite until the end.
Thanks, Li…
I feel the “genuine” herein… 👍🏼✨
Thanks, Rob. I was just admiring your wife’s loom which I might link into my A to Z which this year is on Fabrics and Fibres https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-2026/ – I cover Looms in L which is upcoming but I don’t have a picture of someone using a floor loom…
I love your honesty, Andrew, this is a beautiful tribute. My parents too were not the temple-visiting kind and in the religion-vitiated atmosphere here, I can’t thank them enough.
That’s a lovely photograph and you do lokk quite a bit like your dad.
Hi, Punam, yes, they took us to “confirmation” classes, all three of us together, all different ages – but I think that just moved me along towards humanism…
what a fun surprise… (I’ve said it before, the TToT is blessed with Hosts and Hostinae with highly creative qualities) thanks for adding to this week’s conversation(ette)
Given the title, I could hardly not share it with TToT…
I think it’s nice to both carry in heart and head and also to make concrete. Thanks for sharing some memories of your parents!
Head and heart – Thinking and Feeling…