Tag: Poetry

H.M.D.

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I found the Poetry Foundation looking for a good poem for mother’s day. And I found out it’s worth a stop — their mission is to make poetry more up front in people’s lives. They’ve got a fat archive of poems and a home page they can brag about.

Mothers rock.

Try Poem of the Day, or Poems about Relationships, or take your chances on a Random Poem.

Today they have a sampler of poems in honor of mother’s day.

I particularly like this one by J Lorraine Brown because of the vivid imagery and the reminder that all mothers start out as fearless little girls.

Tintype on the Pond, 1925

Believe it or not,
the old woman said,
and I tried to picture it:
a girl,
the polished white ribs of a roast
tied to her boots with twine,
the twine coated with candle wax
so she could glide
uninterrupted
across the ice—
my mother,
skating on bones.

Inspiration

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The Journey is from Dream Work by Mary Oliver. The New York Times has described her as “far and away this country’s [America] best-selling poet.” She has won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award.

This poem captures a time of transformation that resonates with anyone facing a difficult choice.  The photograph by Casey Boudreau, Kansas City, serves as counterpoint.

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice —
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
 
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do —
determined to save
the only life you could save.