Sweet flowers I bring:
Mother, accept, I pray
My offering.
From "To My Mother" by Christina Rossetti
Mix a few paper flowers into your mother's day bouquet this year. Whether tulips or roses, orchids or lilies, find over fifty different poems arranged by flower and perfect for pairing with blossoms. Louise Glück on poppies, Pablo Neruda on roses, and Jean Valentine on lilies are among the many poets and flowers ready to pick.
On the web at: www.poets.org/flowers
I should have thought
in a dream you would have brought
some lovely, perilous thing,
orchids piled in a great sheath
–from "At Baia" by H. D.
I had the swirl and ache
From sprays of honeysuckle
That when they're gathered shake
Dew on the knuckle.
–from "To Earthward" by Robert Frost
This is the bird hour, peony blossoms falling bigger than wren hearts
On the cutting border's railroad ties,
Sparrows and other feathery things
Homing from one hedge to the next,
–from "Littlefoot" by Charles Wright
Gold corona, widen to sky.
I hold you lion in my eye
sunup until night.
–from "Little Lion Face" by May Swenson
Don't tell me we're not like plants,
sending out a shoot when we need to,
or spikes, poisonous oils, or flowers.
–from "Erotic Energy" by Chase Twichell
Lion-Hearted: Poems for Mother's Day
Whether singing or scolding, loving or smothering, mothers occupy a mythic space. This complicated relationship is frequently celebrated and explored by poets. Find both classic and unconventional poems about mothers by Christina Rossetti, William Meredith, Allen Ginsberg, Mark Strand, and others on Poets.org.
On the web at: www.poets.org/mothers
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