Weather Retort
©1981 Susan Noyes Anderson
A long-sleeved shirt again?
Oh, come on Mom, I just can’t take it.
I know that summer’s coming,
but I wonder if I’ll make it.
Family Relationship Poems
My heart is most pleased and blessed by family and family relationship poems, for they are closest to my heart. Some of these offerings are funny, moving, nostalgic, or religious. Others are more complex, refusing (as families themselves do) to fit neatly under any one characterization. My poems value the complexity of every family relationship and respect those who honor and uphold it. I hope you find something that resonates with you here. May the poems evoke feelings (delightful and occasionally less so) that we all associate with being part of a family.
FINDING THE POEM YOU WANT: As you scroll through this section, simply read each snippet sample (usually the first four lines) to get a feel for the poem. When you find something you like, click “CONTINUE READING” to view the entire poem.
(My work may be used free for non-commercial purposes only. Please request permission by email and include full copyright information, legibly printed, on every copy made. For internet use, a link back to the poem on this website is required.)
Growing Pains
©1994 Susan Noyes Anderson, The Funny Side of Parenthood, Meadowbrook Press
My little boys are growing up.
The baby’s five-foot-three!
It’s great, but must they take such pride
in looking down on me?
The Legacy
©1994 Susan Noyes Anderson, The Lyric
Image by Scott Webb from Unsplash
Old house, you held a family in your womb.
You stood upon the soil with warmth and grace,
a sanctuary and a birthing place,
nurturing life and love in every room.
Bearing Arms…and Children
©1991 Susan Noyes Anderson
Image by Joel Holland on Unsplash
We set up housekeeping in an open mine field.
No tanks. No sweepers. No safety.
Daffodils looked harmless, but traveled
in armies. Hyacinths took prisoners.
A Quilt Made of Love
©1997 Susan Noyes Anderson
(written for an AIDS quilt presentation program)
When I was a child, my very best thing
was to snuggle up warm under grandmother’s quilt.
Every patch was a memory, stitched up with love;
every square a reminder, painstakingly built,
Market Day
©2003 by Susan Noyes Anderson, His Children, Vantage Point Press
Photograph ©2003 Anita Schiller
Oh for a son
when my head is bowed
and years have lined my face––
A stalwart son
with a gentle heart,
The Source
©1999 Susan Noyes Anderson (poem only)
If I had words to wrap around
those mommy days and mother years,
I’d hold them in my hands and say
that nothing ever disappears.
A Parent’s Reverie
©1997 Susan Noyes Anderson, At the End of Your Rope, There’s Hope,
Deseret Book (poem only)
Sometimes, when I am quite alone and still,
The Spirit speaks and whispers words of truth:
That I am not the master of your youth
And was not called to bend you to my will.