Memorial Poems, Quotes and Gifts: Remembering My Father

My father has a mask
That hangs up in his study,
It is bronze and earthy,
With scary eyes.
It has a surprised mouth,
that holds the key
to some deep and dark mystery.

One day long ago
I asked him,
What deep dark secrets he hid,
In that strange mask
That hung up in his study.

Is it the key to your secrets
that you never told mother and I?
Or is it the key to your heart
where your love for us lies?
No, he told me with a serious
far away look in his eyes,
It is the key to my homeland,
that I left a long time ago,
It reminds me of where I came from,
And where I shall go.

I regarded him quizzically,
For it was unusual for him
to be so full of mystery.
Father of what are you talking?
And he snapped out of his reverie.
Never mind my dear,
he said placatingly.
I will tell you when you are old
enough to understand,
the stories about my homeland,
and its deep mystery.

When you go there will you take us with you I pled,
He looked at me gravely and shook his head,
Each one must make their own journey my dear,
But there will always be a home there for you so never fear.

Now my father has gone to his home,
He is no longer with us
But I know that I am not alone.
I look up at the mask that hangs in his study,
And I know that he is watching over me.
I remember those words that he said a long time ago
And they bring me comfort and ease my sorrow.
There will always be a home for you my dear
So let your heart rest easy and never ever fear.

This death memorial poem is dedicated to my dear Father, the late Chief Justice Z.R. Chesoni who passed away on September 5th, 1999.

Image: Abstract Metal Art Work by Injete Chesoni. "My Fathers Mask," from the African Art Mask Collection.

These quotes about fathers and the loss of a father are suitable for use during funeral or memorial services and also to add to memorial gifts.

1. A father is someone you look up to no matter how tall you grow. - Author Unknown
2. A man never grows up until his father dies. - African Proverb
3. As you do for your ancestors, your children will do for you. - African Proverb
4. Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father. - Lydia M. Child
5. Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever. - Author Unknown
6. Dads don't need to be tall and broad-shouldered and clever. Love makes them so. - Pam Brown
7. He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. - Clarence B. Kelland
8. His heritage to his children wasn't words or possessions, but an unspoken treasure, the treasure of his example as a man and a father. - Will Rogers Jr.
9. If all the fathers in the world held out their hand in friendship, yours is the one I'd hold. - Author Unknown
10. It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was. - Anne Sexton
11. It is admirable for a man to take his son fishing, but there is a special place in heaven for the father who takes his daughter shopping. - John Sinor
12. It's not the fishin'... It's the time together. - Author Unknown
13. It's only when you grow up and step back from him; or leave him for your own home; it's only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it. - Margaret Truman
14. I've learned that a father's blessing can fill a son's soul to the brim. - Kelly Tobey
15. My dear father; my dear friend; the best and wisest man I ever knew, who taught me many lessons and showed me many things as we went together along the country by-ways. - Sarah Orne Jewett
16. My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me. - Jim Valvano
17. Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance. - Ruth E. Renkel
18. Tell me who your father is, and I'll tell you who you are. - Filipino Proverb
19. The love of a father is one of nature's greatest masterpieces. - Anonymous
20. The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. -Henry Ward Beecher
21. The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering-galleries, they are clearly heard at the end and by posterity. - Jean Paul Richter
22. To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter. - Euripides
23. To her the name of father was another name for love. - Fanny Fern
24. Up on his shoulders... is where I love to be. - Michael Carr
25. We desire to bequest two things to our children - the first one is roots; the other one is wings. - African Proverb (Sudan)
26. What do I owe my father? Everything. - Henry Van Dyke
27. What you have inherited from your father, you must earn over again for yourselves, or it will not be yours. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
28. When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. - Mark Twain
29. When you follow in the path of your father, you learn to walk like him. - Ghanaian Proverb
30. You only appreciate your father the day you become a father yourself. - Iranian Proverb
31. You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was. -Irish Proverb

Even after life is gone
In our hearts your love lingers on
Even after you have left our sight
In our thoughts
your light shines bright
Even after you are gone
In our memories
you forever live on.

Image and Poetry from: http://poetry-and-art-by-injete-chesoni.blogspot.com/

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
-Henry Longfellow

Image Courtesy of: http://pdphoto.org/