Family Poems | Poemist

Popular Family Poems

Father Son And Holy Ghost

by Audre Lorde

I have not ever seen my father's grave.

Not that his judgment eyes
have been forgotten
nor his great hands' print
on our evening doorknobs
one half turn each night
and he would come
drabbled with the world's business
massive and silent

......

Poem

by Elizabeth Bishop

About the size of an old-style dollar bill,
American or Canadian,
mostly the same whites, gray greens, and steel grays
-this little painting (a sketch for a larger one?)
has never earned any money in its life.
Useless and free., it has spent seventy years
as a minor family relic handed along collaterally to owners
who looked at it sometimes, or didn't bother to.

It must be Nova Scotia; only there

......

We Refugees

by Benjamin Zephaniah

I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.

I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.

......

Nature Trail

by Benjamin Zephaniah

At the bottom of my garden
There's a hedgehog and a frog
And a lot of creepy-crawlies
Living underneath a log,
There's a baby daddy long legs
And an easy-going snail
And a family of woodlice,
All are on my nature trail.

There are caterpillars waiting

......

A Newspaper Is A Collection Of Half-Injustices

by Stephen Crane

A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices
Which, bawled by boys from mile to mile,
Spreads its curious opinion
To a million merciful and sneering men,
While families cuddle the joys of the fireside
When spurred by tale of dire lone agony.

A newspaper is a court
Where every one is kindly and unfairly tried
By a squalor of honest men.

......

Recent Family Poems

Dysfunctional

by Nathaniel Phillips

Feeling like I’m expendable and mocked if I should say so
Suppress me
Till the silence invites the comfort my honesty interferes with
I’m no one of consequence and faking a sense of belonging
Just a work horse and a lost cause

Cash the checks without the bill of attention
Lost affections left on an unpaid tab
Drink from me till you get your fill
Then tuck me away when I’m just a tool at your convenience

......

Trembling

by Lee-Ann Azzopardi

I'm trembling
The coldness in the house
Isn't the reason
I'm trembling because
I miss yr arms around me
Wiping my tears
As I mourn the loss
You're gone too
There's nothing to say
No one's embrace to keep me warm

......

Memory Revisiting

by Evelyn Judy Buehler

black cherry dusk skies
and moon rose, it was silver
butterfly quivers

the gemmed stars were out
and Mom tending blooms, singing
clematis clinging

jade dragonfly lake
comes again in memory

......

Houthem,waar de tijd zacht zingt

by Mario Odekerken

In 't dal waar Geul haar liedjes vlecht,
ligt houthem,stil en trouw gehecht
aan heuvels,bomen,eeuwen oud,
waar zonlicht gouden dromen houdt.

Een dorp van klokken, traag van gang,
waar ochtendmist de velden lang
omhult in zachte,zilvren glans,
een plek geboren uit balans.

......

De Esdoornlaan

by Mario Odekerken

In Mariadorp ligt een laan,
waar de bomen zich buigen over verhalen
die niemand nog hardop vertelt.

Hier werd mijn moeder geboren,
in een huis waar het ochtendlicht
langs de vensterbank gleed
alsof het haar naam kende.

De zon streek over de rode dakpannen,

......