Small boy By Norman McCaig He picked up a pebble and threw it into the sea. And another, and another. He couldn’t stop. He wasn’t trying to fill the sea. He wasn’t trying to empty the beach. He was just throwing away, nothing else but. Like a kitten playing he was practising for the future […]
Rest. By Richard Jones It’s so late I could cut my lights and drive the next fifty miles of empty interstate by starlight, flying along in a dream, countryside alive with shapes and shadows, but exit ramps lined with eighteen wheelers and truckers sleeping in their cabs make me consider pulling into a rest stop […]
Lost Childhood By: David Ignatow How was it possible, I a father yet a child of my father? I grew panicky and thought of running away but knew I would be scorned for it by my father. I stood and listened to myself being called Dad. How ridiculous it sounded, but in front of me, […]
Shoes | By Anonymous My father has a pair of shoes So beautiful to see. I want to wear my father’s shoes. They are too big for me. My baby brother has a pair As cunning as can be. My feet won’t go into that pair. They are too small for me. There’s only one […]
Parental Recollections By Charles Lamb A child’s a plaything for an hour; Its pretty tricks we try For that or for a longer space; Then tire, and lay it by. But I knew one, that to itself All seasons could controul; That would have mock’d the sense of pain Out of a grieved soul. Thou, […]
To Any Reader By Robert Louis Stevenson As from the house your mother sees You playing round the garden trees, So you may see, if you will look Through the windows of this book, Another child, far, far away, And in another garden, play. But do not think you can at all, By knocking on […]
Father’s Old Blue Cardigan By Anne Carson Now it hangs on the back of the kitchen chair where I always sit, as it did on the back of the kitchen chair where he always sat. I put it on whenever I come in, as he did, stamping the snow from his boots. I put it […]
Family Reunion By Maxine W. Kumin The week in August you come home, adult, professional, aloof, we roast and carve the fatted calf —in our case homegrown pig, the chine garlicked and crisped, the applesauce hand-pressed. Handpressed with greengage wine. Nothing is cost effective here. The peas, the beets, the lettuces handsown, are raised to […]
The Princess: Sweet and Low By Alfred, Lord Tennyson Sweet and low, sweet and low, Wind of the western sea, Low, low, breathe and blow, Wind of the western sea! Over the rolling waters go, Come from the dying moon, and blow, Blow him again to me; While my little one, while my pretty one, […]
Only a Dad By Edgar Albert Guest Only a dad with a tired face, Coming home from the daily race, Bringing little of gold or fame To show how well he has played the game; But glad in his heart that his own rejoice To see him come and to hear his voice. Only a […]