“A Sonnet for My Father”

My father fought as a pilot in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theatre of the Second World War and in Korea. . . for my mother, and for me, and in the name of justice for the entire world! He was the greatest man I ever met in his generation. From my father, the light of justice; from my mother, the fire of love.

“The most important thing a father can do
for his children is to love their mother.”
~~Author Unknown

And was it my own mother loved so greatly,
“No, no woman should,” she said, “love anyone
As much as I loved him!” And as his son
I knew him first because he gave me
Cherished gleanings of the name of justice
There above the love my mother bore
And brought the two together well before
They introduced me to the world. It was right
That she be loved by one in whose eyes light
And honour both to God and to His name,
The promise of his country, and its fame
Lay not so much in victory or in the glory of its might,
But kneading hope for human dignity with yeasts of truth renewed again
That set my mother’s eyes ablaze and far beyond the gaze of other lesser men.