Seeking poem for oldest son

[AmyA]

I'm not sure where to post this...
I am going through a struggle in the bonding relationship with my 6yr old ds. I am looking for a beautiful poem that i can put next to my bed with a picture of him so that i can remind myself before I go to sleep and when I first wake up, how much I love and cherish him. Some background...he went from only child to oldest of 4 within 1 year and he has been very resentful towards me since his brothers were born. He has been acting out in every way possible & I sadly admit that I have lost my patience with him several times in the past few months. I am hoping to find a poem that says the words that I feel in my heart, but I cant seem to express right now. I would greatly appreciate any help.

[nicole lisa]

Hmmm...I'll have to take a moment and think about a poem. All of a sudden I am drawing a blank and I do know some.

But what I'd really love to reccomend is the essay (actually the whole book!) "Boy Crazy" by Sallie Tisdale in the collection Mothers Who Think edited by Camille Peri and Kate Moses. I read it over and over again and each time I fall in love with DS again. It is written in praise of teenage bys and even though I don't have one yet it reminds me that the groups of guys hanging at the mall, so loud and brash, that I find myself feeling a bit intimidated by are boys just like my DS is a boy - just older.

The end paragraph reads:

I am the mother of men, venturing forth, blossoming, doomed as are we all. So I sing for teenage boys; I think we all should sing. Sing for Huck Finn, for Pinocchio, for Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, sing along: "I won't grow up." Sing about the Greek atheletes running endlessly on the broken urns, made beautiful by capricious gods. Sing about the eternity of youth, which doesn't last forever.

I am such a sap about him growing up (which I admit somedays I wish would come sooner than later) that even writing that out has me tearing up. The essay always reminds me that I don't have long with my son just as he is now.