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

......

The Duel

by Eugene Field

The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;
'T was half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)
Nor one nor t' other had slept a wink!
The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate
Appeared to know as sure as fate
There was going to be a terrible spat.
(I wasn't there; I simply state
What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)

......

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.

......

More Than Just a Daughter-In-Law

by Julia Shaw

I have two daughters, of which I'm in awe,
One is by birth and the other by law.
Once I've known 46 years more,
The other I've known only five times four.
When I first met her, I never foresaw,
That she would become more than just my daughter-in-law.

When my son became a man of twenty-two years,
He sought for a woman that would stand through tears.
He had no time for the shallow and suspect.

......

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

......

Recent Family Poems

Poison in my Veins

by Kimani Hare

Your pretension exhausts me
With your absurd actions superseding your illogical thoughts
Fallacies fiddling your holier than thou

Yet I remain loathsomely chained
Familial blood eradicating the spirit

If blood is thicker than water
Then let Tylenol dilute me and be my keeper

......

Where I'm from

by Kimani Hare

I am from the kindness of the “oh so talkative” Scott family

And the hard work born from the “ever-stubborn” Hare’s

From traffic-ridden highways and serene rushing rivers

To classes where I was one in two to one and fifteen

Where folks packed the morning streets to break from spaghetti junctions and impending traffic jams

......

Wishing Well

by Evelyn Judy Buehler

Stella Williams was eight years old, living with her widowed mother-
Happily, though a bit lonely, like powder blue skies, sans sunset color.

The Williams lived in a rural area, with no child Stella's age, nearby.
A farmer in the valley, was the only neighbor, like waves of no reply.

Still, school hours were fun for Stella, like rollicking days of summer;
When plum sun, waltzed with stars of glitter, often going undercover.

Stella, at times, threw coins in their well, to wish for a special friend,

......

Consequences

by Gaia Ku

Deleted

Relationships

by Gaia Ku

Deleted