Childhood Poems
I Am
by John Clare
I am: yet what I am none cares or knows,
My friends forsake me like a memory lost;
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shades in love and death's oblivion lost;
And yet I am! and live with shadows tost
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life nor joys,
......
Duino Elegies: The Fourth Elegy
by Rainer Maria Rilke
O trees of life, oh, what when winter comes?
We are not of one mind. Are not like birds
in unison migrating. And overtaken,
overdue, we thrust ourselves into the wind
and fall to earth into indifferent ponds.
Blossoming and withering we comprehend as one.
And somewhere lions roam, quite unaware,
in their magnificence, of any weaknesss.
But we, while wholly concentrating on one thing,
......
The Dying Child
by John Clare
He could not die when trees were green,
For he loved the time too well.
His little hands, when flowers were seen,
Were held for the bluebell,
As he was carried o'er the green.
His eye glanced at the white-nosed bee;
He knew those children of the spring:
When he was well and on the lea
He held one in his hands to sing,
......
Home
by Zbigniew Herbert
A home above the year's seasons
home of children animals and apples
a square of empty space
under an absent star
home was the telescope of childhood
the skin of emotion
a sister's cheek
branch of a tree
......
In Childhood
by Kimiko Hahn
things don't die or remain damaged
but return: stumps grow back hands,
a head reconnects to a neck,
a whole corpse rises blushing and newly elastic.
Later this vision is not True:
the grandmother remains dead
not hibernating in a wolf's belly.
Or the blue parakeet does not return
from the little grave in the fern garden
though one may wake in the morning
......
Childhood Reveries
by Advik Saxena
In fields of gold beneath the summer sun,
Where laughter danced and time was never done,
We chased the butterflies in endless flight,
And dreams took wing on fleeting rays of light.
Through woods alive with whispers soft and kind,
Where secrets bloomed like flowers in the mind,
We built our castles in the morning dew,
And every wish we had, we found was true.
......
Playing House
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
Orange sun is out, and we're playing house
My pets are my kids-until puss sees mouse!
Mommy loves to water her gorgeous blooms
While dog and kitty rest, inside porch rooms.
This Saturday, childhood seems left behind
When we make-believe, as the time unwinds.
Soon Mommy serves lunch-of milk and a bone;
And sandwich for herself. Jay sings alone.
Innocence
by Everleigh Blackburn
Innocence of childhood,
Pure and untouched,
Like a blank canvas,
Waiting to be painted with colors of joy.
Giggles and laughter,
Fill the air with delight,
As little feet run freely,
Chasing after dreams.
......
Pink flower
by Sarah Abdulla
My room is filled by depleting
light of the pink flower that lays so
preciously on my wall.
My mother tells me that it is there
to protect me, but how do I tell her
I am not fearful of the darkness?
But rather the soullessness place
my mind travels to, in the midst
of her absence.
Dancing in the Rain
by Bethany Burkey
As children we splashed around in puddles
And look for rainbows when the sky cleared.
Loving life and the simplicities of what made us happy.
Completely ignorant of the struggles of the world.
As we grew older, we grew bolder.
Instead of waiting for the rain to stop.
We’d simply run out the door as quickly as we could,
Smiling and holding each other’s hand.
......
