1. The Borders - written by Sharon Olds
Read 2410 times on American Poems.

To say that she came into me,
from another world, is not true.
Nothing comes into the universe
and nothing leaves it.
My mother—I mean my daughter did not
enter me. She began to exist
inside me—she appeared within me.
And my mother did not... (Read full poem)

A man ambushed a stone. Caught it. Made it a prisoner. 
Put it in a dark room and stood guard over it for the 
rest of his life.

His mother asked why.

He said, because it's held captive, because it is 
captured.

Look, the stone is asleep, she... (Read full poem)

3. Prayers After World War - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 3059 times on American Poems.

WANDERING oversea dreamer,
Hunting and hoarse, Oh daughter and mother,
Oh daughter of ashes and mother of blood,
Child of the hair let down, and tears,
Child of the cross in the south
And the star in the north,
Keeper of Egypt and Russia and... (Read full poem)

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
Therefore by that dear name I long have called you-
You who are more than... (Read full poem)

5. Virgule - written by Thomas Lux
Read 803 times on American Poems.

What I love about this little leaning mark
is how it divides
without divisiveness.  The left
or bottom side prying that choice up or out,
the right or top side pressing down upon
its choice:  either/or,
his/her.  Sometimes called a slash (too... (Read full poem)

She begins, and my grandmother joins her. 
Mother and daughter sing like young girls. 
If my father were alive, he would play 
his accordion and sway like a boat. 

I've never been in Peking, or the Summer Palace, 
nor stood on the great... (Read full poem)

7. Lois Spears - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 456 times on American Poems.

Here lies the body of Lois Spears,
Born Lois Fluke, daughter of Willard Fluke,
Wife of Cyrus Spears,
Mother of Myrtle and Virgil Spears,
Children with clear eyes and sound limbs --
(I was born blind)
I was the happiest of women
As wife,... (Read full poem)

1
COME up from the fields, father, here’s a letter from our Pete; 
And come to the front door, mother—here’s a letter from thy dear son. 
  
2
Lo, ’tis autumn; 
Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder, 
Cool and... (Read full poem)

9. The parasol is the umbrella's daughter, - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 3609 times on American Poems.

The parasol is the umbrella's daughter,
And associates with a fan
While her father abuts the tempest
And abridges the rain.

The former assists a siren
In her serene display;
But her father is borne and honored,
And borrowed to this day.(Read full poem)

Ferdinand was systematic when
he drove his daughter mad.

With a Casanova's careful art,
he moved slowly,
stole only one child at a time
through tunnels specially dug
behind the walls of her royal
chamber, then paid the Duenna
well to... (Read full poem)

11. Snow White's Acne - written by Denise Duhamel
Read 4276 times on American Poems.

At first she was sure it was just a bit of dried strawberry juice,
or a fleck of her mother's red nail polish that had flaked off
when she'd patted her daughter to sleep the night before.
But as she scrubbed, Snow felt a bump, something... (Read full poem)

There will be mud on the carpet tonight
and blood in the gravy as well.
The wifebeater is out,
the childbeater is out
eating soil and drinking bullets from a cup.
He strides bback and forth
in front of my study window
chewing little red pieces of my... (Read full poem)

13. Destruction Of Daughters - written by Lee Upton
Read 463 times on American Poems.

The friend who is concerned
with backdrops, not us,
but what we stand against,
his way of looking at the women
he loves,
to not look at them at all
but at roofs, a bit of sky.
To understand when exactly
a woman is angry
because of the way she... (Read full poem)

What should I be but a prophet and a liar,
Whose mother was a leprechaun, whose father was a friar?
Teethed on a crucifix and cradled under water,
What should I be but the fiend's god-daughter?

And who should be my playmates but the adder and the... (Read full poem)

15. The Singing-Woman from the Wood's Edge - written by Edna St. Vincent Millay
From A Few Figs From Thistles. Published in 1921. Read 1360 times on American Poems.

What should I be but a prophet and a liar,
Whose mother was a leprechaun, whose father was a friar?
Teethed on a crucifix and cradled under water,
What should I be but the fiend's god-daughter?

And who should be my playmates but the adder and the... (Read full poem)

His mother goes. The mother comes & goes.
Chen Lung's too came, came and crampt & then
that dragoner's mother was gone.
It seem we don't have no good bed to lie on,
forever. While he drawing his first breath,
while skinning his... (Read full poem)

17. Poem in praise of menstruation - written by Lucille Clifton
Read 2098 times on American Poems.

if there is a river 
more beautiful than this 
bright as the blood 
red edge of the moon if 
there is a river 
more faithful than this 
returning each month 
to the same delta if there

is a river 
braver than this 
coming and coming in a... (Read full poem)

it gets run over by a van. 
you find it at the side of the road 
and bury it. 
you feel bad about it. 
you feel bad personally, 
but you feel bad for your daughter 
because it was her pet, 
and she loved it so. 
she used to croon to it 
and let it... (Read full poem)

19. Cinderella - written by Randall Jarrell
Read 2021 times on American Poems.

Her imaginary playmate was a grown-up 
In sea-coal satin. The flame-blue glances, 
The wings gauzy as the membrane that the ashes 
Draw over an old ember --as the mother 
In a jug of cider-- were a comfort to her. 
They sat by the fire and told each... (Read full poem)

Like Oedipus I am losing my sight.
LIke Judas I have done my wrong.
Their punishment is over;
the shame and disgrace of it
are all used up.
But as for me,
look into my face
and you will know that crimes dropped upon me
as from a high building
and... (Read full poem)

21. Dorothy Q. - written by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Read 535 times on American Poems.

GRANDMOTHER's mother: her age, I guess,
Thirteen summers, or something less;
Girlish bust, but womanly air;
Smooth, square forehead with uprolled hair;
Lips that lover has never kissed;
Taper fingers and slender wrist;
Hanging sleeves of... (Read full poem)

I think, therefore I am, said a man whose mother quickly 
hit him on the head, saying, I hit my son on the head, 
therefore I am.
  No no, you've got it all wrong, cried the man.
  So she hit him on the head again and cried, therefore I am.
  You're... (Read full poem)

23. Mother and Babe. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 4312 times on American Poems.

I SEE the sleeping babe, nestling the breast of its mother; 
The sleeping mother and babe—hush’d, I study them long and long.(Read full poem)

I was the daughter of Lambert Hutchins,
Born in a cottage near the grist-mill,
Reared in the mansion there on the hill,
With its spires, bay-windows, and roof of slate.
How proud my mother was of the mansion!
How proud of father's rise in the... (Read full poem)

25. Lullaby - written by Louise Gluck
From Ararat. Published in 1990. Read 2567 times on American Poems.

My mother's an expert in one thing:
sending people she loves into the other world.
The little ones, the babies--these
she rocks, whispering or singing quietly. I can't say
what she did for my father;
whatever it was, I'm sure it was... (Read full poem)