Childhood Poems
You Can'T Have It All
by Barbara Ras
But you can have the fig tree and its fat leaves like clown hands
gloved with green. You can have the touch of a single eleven-year-old finger
on your cheek, waking you at one a.m. to say the hamster is back.
You can have the purr of the cat and the soulful look
of the black dog, the look that says, If I could I would bite
every sorrow until it fled, and when it is August,
you can have it August and abundantly so. You can have love,
though often it will be mysterious, like the white foam
that bubbles up at the top of the bean pot over the red kidneys
until you realize foam's twin is blood.
......
I Am Waiting
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting
for someone to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting
......
Childhood
by Rainer Maria Rilke
It would be good to give much thought, before
you try to find words for something so lost,
for those long childhood afternoons you knew
that vanished so completely -and why?
We're still reminded-: sometimes by a rain,
but we can no longer say what it means;
life was never again so filled with meeting,
with reunion and with passing on
......
Sonnet 43 - How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
XLIII
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
......
Tear It Down
by Jack Gilbert
We find out the heart only by dismantling what
the heart knows. By redefining the morning,
we find a morning that comes just after darkness.
We can break through marriage into marriage.
By insisting on love we spoil it, get beyond
affection and wade mouth-deep into love.
We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars.
But going back toward childhood will not help.
The village is not better than Pittsburgh.
Only Pittsburgh is more than Pittsburgh.
......
112. Base Note
by Kea Campbell
The elders always preach, “Enjoy it while it lasts,” as if time were a candle’s flame,
Its wick approaching cessation with each hour, though the vaporized wax looks all same.
They speak of youth like a fleeting song you can hum, but can’t ever replay,
And the melody of your most cherished memories, fade with every passing, ticking, day.
“They grow up so fast,” elders sigh, as if the days were endless grains of sand in your grasp,
Folding too swiftly through unsteady fingers, each moment slipping from future to present to past.
Everyone is biased and can give useful advice, like a series of paths that speak to your gut.
Every anecdotal tale holds many truths, but it’s at your discretion which trail you choose to trust.
The child in you doesn’t measure days; it swallows them whole and forgets,
It climbs the oak without counting the branches, and leaps without fear of regrets.
You discover that the sky has its limits, when your first airplane cuts through the blue,
And you learn to ignore the world’s lobbies of expectations, in your pursuit of finding the truest you.
Adulthood arrives without warning, with a voice that is colder than stone,
Demanding the debts for the dreams you abandoned, and the seeds you never had sown.
You earn in hours bent over a desk, and late nights on a pc with the occasional grog.
Accumulating bills that you can barely pay off, with your side hustle and full-time job.
......
Szene aus meinen Kinderjahren
by Mario Odekerken
Ein staubiger Sonnenstrahl
fällt schräg auf den Küchenboden.
Draußen kräht ein Hahn,
drinnen summt das Radio leise,
irgendwo ein Lied,
das keiner mehr ganz kennt.
Meine kleinen Hände
greifen nach dem Brot,
noch warm,
......
Streetlights
by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu
With the power invested in you to give light
As from 6:45 p.m., you waste no time in
Shining warmly bright;
Gently you flourish, and with the power of
Renewed energy upon which you prompt us
Little kids, reminding us of the ticking clock
In our racing hearts.
Tic-toc-tic-toc-tic-toc.
And your lights, generous, shine on the evening
Sun, slowly sinking beyond giving light.
......
Beyond the Screen: A Child's Plea
by Aditi Hayaran
"Oh dear baby,
Come on, little honey,
You're so cute!
Perform for mommy for money.
This will get you known.
Leave the toy, let's practice.
Pick up the phone."
"Oh, see, you're famous!
Followers in millions, you see?
......
The Railroad
by A. Jayne Kalty
Down the driveway and along the sidewalk
Fallen leaves whisper underfoot of a teetering post-toddler
Through the front yard and over the fence
Laughter of the leaves grows louder under velcroed shoes
Up a tree and over the great stone wall
Crunches and snaps and crackles in twigs under bunny eared sneakers
A long trail long silent
A railway lingering in disuse
The new conductor’s symphony of nature has covered over the tracks of the predecessor
The Railroad never known in its operation to a child who has only lived so long
......
