A Father’s Day Poem

LEADER OF THE BAND

The songs one day stop
being about our fathers
and no longer make us sad
we did not say I love you
or express our gratitude
for all they had done.

The same songs now feed
our fear of being forgotten
and we pray the songs we sang
will be understood as a gift
received grudgingly of our fathers
but passed eagerly to our children

as old men have asked in prayer
generation onto generation amen.

– Joseph Neely

It’s dangerous to put a new poem out into the world before revising it daily for at least a week, and I wrote the first draft just two days ago. But Father’s Day is this Sunday; hence this poem, ready or not

I was listening to Dan Fogelberg sing ‘Leader of the Band’ when it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn’t thinking about my father while listening to that song – as I always have in the past – I was thinking about my legacy. Again, hence this poem.

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My book, SLOW RIVERS, can be ordered through your local bookstore or online via bookshop.org. (ISBN 979-8-218-43822-7)

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Joseph Neely, all rights to original material reserved.