Adoption STAR Client and Guest Blogger Lesa Quale Ferguson shares a touching birth parent-themed piece of poetry written by her father.
Lesa Quale Ferguson has shared some of her wonderful writings with Adoption STAR before, but today’s blog post features poetry written not by her, but by her father. The piece is entitled, “That Impish Way.”
As an introduction to the piece of poetry (that was initially shared on the blog portion of her website), Lesa wrote, “While Mike Quale (my father) was away from home over the holiday he wrote this poem about our son Cal. In an amazing coincidence, Cal’s birth mom attended school where my father taught for 30+ years. She was one of his students.”
That Impish Way
By Mike Quale
I taught in various schools for over 40 years. The kids I taught always gave back to me. It rewarded my life. I did have certain kinds of favorite kids, though. One of my favorites was the impish kid who had a big open heart. When I retired, all of the kids were suddenly gone. I had a very hard time trying to get over the loss of them. And then this happened:
My daughter with heart
Married a man with heart
And through an adoption agency with heart
They met a woman with heart
Who happened to be one of those kids I had taught many years before.
She was as impish as I liked
And has a very big heart.
She gave birth to a baby with the same impish ways
And all of her heart.
And I suddenly became his grandfather.
Whether you call that Chance or Luck
Destiny or Fate,
How many stars had to align
In unfathomable ways
Against infinite odds
For this ever to come to be?
When I look in his eyes and see how he is,
That impish way,
And that heart I thought was gone
Has come back to me.
Thank you.