Meg Glawe
September 8, 2000
Prayer for My Father
As I said in class my favorite poem in the book Blue like the Heavens by Gary
Gildner, Prayer for My Father is my favorite. The poem really caught me emotionally
and could understand it. Nothing of this sort has happened to me but someone close to
me has had this happen to them.
When my father was seventeen he lost his own father in a farming accident. My
dad was very close to his father and still finds it difficult to talk about him without
missing him too much. When I first read the poem I automatically could picture the
relationship between my dad and my grandfather. They were both very hard working
dairy farmers who loved fishing and hunting together. This poem definitely reflects how
I feel my dad felt when he lost his father.
When I read this poem I see the grieving and other emotions and it makes it very
real. You can feel how the speaker is missing his father and it makes him reflect on the
memories he had with his father. The speaker is promising himself that he will never
forget his father and hopes that the memories live on in his fathers spirit. He doesn’t see
his father as gone forever but just as in a different place, a better place. He sees the great
memories will cherish them always. This is how I see my own father. He doesn’t talk
about his father much but I know deep in his heart he will never forget a moment of the
memories he made with his father.
This is how I see this poem and I really liked it too. It has a lot of significance to
me and I feel it was written with great thought and emotion.