May 7, 2016 3 min read

Q. A few years back, you reprinted a lovely poem about appreciating one’s mother while she is still alive. The reader said it appeared in a book of poems published in 1936. I meant to copy it, but as usual, I forgot. Can you run it again so I can keep it this time? – Janice in Wisconsin

A. Readers often ask us to repeat this particular poem and we are happy to do so:

”If You’re Ever Going To Love Me”

(Author Unknown)

If you’re ever going to love me, love me now, while I can know

All the sweet and tender feelings which from real affection flow.

Love me now, while I am living; do not wait til I am gone

And then chisel it in marble – warm love words on ice-cold stone.

If you’ve dear, sweet thoughts about me, why not whisper them to me?

Don’t you know ‘twould make me happy and as glad as glad could be?

If you wait til I am sleeping, ne’er to waken here again,

There’ll be walls of earth between us and I couldn’t hear you then.

If you knew someone was thirsting for a drop of water sweet

Would you be so slow to bring it? Would you step with laggard feet?

There are tender hearts all round us who are thirsting for our love;

Why withhold from them what nature makes them crave all else above?

I won’t need your kind caresses when the grass grows o’er my face;

I won’t crave your love or kisses in my last low resting place.

So, then, if you love me any, if it’s but a little bit,

Let me know it now while living; I can own and treasure it.

Dear readers: Here is one more that appeared in our column several years back, but we know it will be appreciated by many:

Prayer for My Mother

(author unknown)

Dear God: How does a daughter begin to thank her mother for life itself? For the love, patience and just plain hard work that go into raising a child? For running after a toddler, for understanding a moody teenager, for tolerating a college student who knows everything? For waiting for the day when a daughter realizes how wise her mother really is?

How does a grown woman thank a mother for continuing to mother? For being ready with advice (when asked) or remaining silent when it is most appreciated? For not saying, “I told you so,” when she could have uttered those words dozens of times? For being essentially herself – loving, thoughtful, patient and forgiving?

I don’t know how, dear God, except to ask you to bless her as richly as she deserves – and to help me live up to the example she has set. I pray that I will look as good in the eyes of my children as my mother looks in mine. – A Daughter

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