Time Poems | Poemist

Popular Time Poems

Lament

by Dylan Thomas

When I was a windy boy and a bit
And the black spit of the chapel fold,
(Sighed the old ram rod, dying of women),
I tiptoed shy in the gooseberry wood,
The rude owl cried like a tell-tale tit,
I skipped in a blush as the big girls rolled
Nine-pin down on donkey's common,
And on seesaw sunday nights I wooed
Whoever I would with my wicked eyes,
The whole of the moon I could love and leave

......

The Mississippi River Empties Into The Gulf

by Lucille Clifton

and the gulf enters the sea and so forth,
none of them emptying anything,
all of them carrying yesterday
forever on their white tipped backs,
all of them dragging forward tomorrow.
it is the great circulation
of the earth's body, like the blood
of the gods, this river in which the past
is always flowing. every water
is the same water coming round.

......

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

......

The Family Tree

by Olive Walters

We've got a family album
Like a family tree
A thrill to turn the pages
The pictures we can see

Starting off with grands and greats
Then slowly down the line
Like a book of history
A journey through the time

......

The Albatross

by Charles Baudelaire

Often to pass the time on board, the crew
will catch an albatross, one of those big birds
which nonchalently chaperone a ship
across the bitter fathoms of the sea.

Tied to the deck, this sovereign of space,
as if embarrassed by its clumsiness,
pitiably lets its great white wings
drag at its sides like a pair of unshipped oars.

......

Recent Time Poems

Jessamyn's Song by Michael R. Burch

by Michael R. Burch

“Jessamyn’s Song” was inspired by Claude Monet’s oil painting “The Walk, Woman with a Parasol,” which I first saw around age 14 and interpreted as a walk in a meadow or heather. The woman’s dress and captivating loveliness made me think of an impending wedding, with dances and festivities. The boy made me think of a family. I gave the woman a name, Jessamyn, and wrote her story, thinking along these lines, while in high school. The opening lines were influenced by “Fern Hill” by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, one of my boyhood favorites and still a favorite today. “Jessamyn’s Song” was substantially complete by age 16, my first long poem, although I was not happy with the poem, overall. I have touched it up here and there over the last half century, but it remains substantially the same as the original poem.

Jessamyn's Song (circa age 14-16)
by Michael R. Burch

16

There are meadows heathered with thoughts of you,
where the honeysuckle winds
in fragrant, tangled vines

......

The Problem with Time

by Linda Doris Burton

If I were to be afraid, then I would fear Time
It is something you cannot touch but can see.
Age results from its increasing pressures
And fear of death a consequence.

If I could see into the future, and remain in the past
Then Time would no longer be a fear
But a friend, a teacher I could trust.
And my lifetime would always remain near.

......

Magnolia

by T. Caddy

Sitting under the magnolia tree in late summer
The sky is a luminous crackle of varnish on an ancient vase.
I am staring up, staring through a creature’s veins,
innumerable shades of verdant gold
sap rushing into and out of cells,
botanical respiration humming
on just the other side
of sight and sound.
The tree says nothing
and I say nothing.

......

Soon Moon

by Evelyn Judy Buehler

Claire Catt was having tea one afternoon
Reading a book, as blue birds sang a tune.
The cat sat, loving fragrant breezes of June;
Until she saw red sun, chasing pale moon!

Claire jumped up yelling, 'Nothing is right!
For how can gold sun, run into black night?'
But, orange sun returned, with dawn light.
Then Claire said smiling, now all is right!

Was it Worth it

by Ella S

Starting something new
is a bit scary at first.
It's not the beginning that's hard,
but seeing it the whole way through.
Sometimes we make it to the end.
Sometimes we don't.
If we do make it through,
it makes us feel good.
A sense of joy when we look back
at what we accomplished.

......