As Mother’s Day approaches, I struggle to think of the perfect gift for my mom. Really, how do you buy something for someone who has given you everything? But reading Rupi Kaur’s books, she voices a love for her mother in beautiful poems. She puts a voice to so many things her reader feels, and appreciation for mothers is one of them. This is to my Mom on Mother’s Day: poems that show how amazing you are to me.

1. One about unconditional love

i struggle so deeply
to understand
how someone can
pour their entire soul
blood and energy
into someone
without wanting
anything in
return
i will have to wait till i’m a mother

2. One about learning

when it came to listening
my mother taught me
if you are drowning their voice with yours
how will you hear them she asked

when it came to speaking
she said do it with commitment
every word you say
is your own responsibility

when it came to being
she said be tender and rough at once
for you need to be vulnerable to live fully
but rough to survive it all

when it came to choosing
she asked me to be thankful
for the choices i had that
she never had the privilege of making

3. One about siblings

when my mother was pregnant
with her second child i was four
i pointed at her swollen belly confused at how
my mother had gotten so big in such little time
my father scooped me in his tree trunk arms and
said the closest thing to god on this earth
is a woman’s body its where life comes from
and to have a grown man tell me something
so powerful at such a young age
changed me to see the entire universe
rested at my mother’s feet

4. One about birth

upon my birth
my mother said
there is god in you
can you feel her dancing
(ode to matisse’s dance)

5. One about life

this is the recipe of life
said my mother
as she held me in her arms as I wept
think of those flowers you plant
in the garden each year
they will teach you
that people too
must wilt
fall
root
rise
in order to bloom

6. One about home

like flowers
ache
for spring
my heart
craves
my mother
more than
anything