A Gift of Love

A gift of Love 

 

Winter snow that softly falls on silent sleeping towns 

Each curtain drawn

While home fires burn  

In silent sleeping towns 

How fast away the days do fade 

For winter’s grip comes swift and strong 

Reminding her of endless days 

The sleepless nights 

The worried dawn 

Each snowflake carries on the wind 

A kiss of love sent out to him 

The kiss is not to touch his skin 

It floats and flies 

Then drifts within 

A gray and quiet circled maze 

Then floats along to rest and lay 

Upon the cold and broken stone 

A love though hushed 

Is not alone 

Deep within a thousand tears 

To last and last through all the years 

The gift of love and sacrifice 

To take the place of one lost life 

Far away the snow drifts down 

Upon the silent sleeping town 

Poem by Kathleen Prue

The poem above is from the perspective of a grieving mother as she drifts off to sleep on the eve of a snowstorm, dreaming of her son who will never return from the Civil War. I have visited and photographed many graves of Civil War soldiers over the years and have always been struck by the sadness the families of these soldiers must have felt at the loss of their sons. I have also read many accounts during my research and it has had a profound effect on me.