Empty Nest: Poems for Families

by Carol Ann Duffy (Editor)

Overview

In this stunning anthology Carol Ann Duffy has selected 99 poems exploring parenting.

The special bond between parent and child is both powerful and unique. And yet there is a time when that bond must ease, where our grip on that dear one must loosen, when we must let them go whether we are ready to or not.

In Empty Nest, a beautiful selection of modern and classic poems range along the tender line between parent and child, covering growing old, the deep love of a parent, the everyday of family life and leaving home to live an independent life, but also unthinkable grief, loss and estrangement. Some of our very favourite poets feature in the selection, such as Elizabeth Bishop, Jackie Kay, Simon Armitage, Shakespeare, Imtiaz Dharker, Seamus Heaney and Don Paterson.

These poems are by turns wry, affecting, profound, melancholy and wise; they will console and comfort those suddenly facing a house that’s much cleaner but also much quieter than it was. There is something here for every reader to treasure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529028690
Publisher:	Pan Macmillan
Publication date:	06/01/2022
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.76(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Carol Ann Duffy lives in Manchester, where she is Professor and Creative Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has written for both children and adults, and her poetry has received many awards, including the Signal Prize for Children’s Verse, the Whitbread, Forward and T. S. Eliot Prizes, and the Lannan and E. M. Forster Prize in America. She was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom 2009–2019. In 2011 The Bees won the Costa Poetry Award, and in 2012 she won the PEN Pinter Prize. She was made a DBE in the 2015 New Year’s Honours list.

Table of Contents

Autumn Birds John Clare 1

Empty Nest Carol Ann Duffy 2

Walking Away C. Day Lewis 4

For A Father Anthony Cronin 5

My Brother Lives Too Far Away Mark Van Doren 6

To A Daughter Leaving Home Linda Pastan 7

Poem For My Sister Liz Lochhead 8

Little Red-Cap Julia Copus 9

Alice, Grown-Up, At The Cocktail Party A. E. Stallings 10

The Ledge Glyn Maxwell 11

Young Colette Bryce 12

Day To Celebrate You Leaving Home Chrissie Gittins 14

Blue Girls John Crowe Ransom 15

The Pomegranate Eavan Boland 16

Going Out Vona Groarke 18

The Buttercup Children Phoebe Hesketh 19

Outgrown Penelope Shuttle 20

Demeter Mourning Rita Dove 21

Nothing Gold Can Stay Robert Frost 22

You are old, Father William Lewis Carroll 23

One Art Elizabeth Bishop 25

Separation W. S. Merwin 26

Waving Goodbye Gerald Stern 27

Marigolds, 1960 Michael Longley 28

Clutch Michael Woods 29

Boy Running Paul Henry 30

Midsummer, Tobago Derek Walcott 31

February - Not Everywhere Norman Maccaig 32

Piano D. H. Lawrence 33

Piano 4pm Jackie Kay 34

Let Him Not Grow Up Gabriela Mistral, translated from the Spanish Ursula Leguin 36

from Book of Matches Simon Armitage 38

Freight Maura Dooley 39

My Son Stepping Out Gerda Stevenson 40

Gap Year Jackie Kay 41

Jog On William Shakespeare 44

On a Son Returned to New Zealand Fleur Adcock 45

The Lost Land Eavan Boland 46

Choke Imtiaz Dharker 48

Heredity Thomas Hardy 50

Those Winter Sundays Robert Hayden 51

Parents William Meredith 52

Hedge-Jug Michael Longley 54

The Nests Maurice Riordan 55

De Profundis Alfred Lord Tennyson 56

A Child Asleep Walter De La Mare 57

A Farewell Charles Kingsley 58

Song Cynthia Zarin 59

Daughter Song Fiona Benson 60

If I Should Ever By Chance Edward Thomas 61

A Kite for Michael and Christopher Seamus Heaney 62

from Leaves: V Matthew Hollis 63

The Black Guitar Paul Henry 65

The Snow Man Wallace Stevens 66

For a Lost Child William Stafford 67

Elegy for a Stillborn Child Seamus Heaney 68

To Our Miscarried One, Age Thirty Now Sharon Olds 70

The lost baby poem Lucille Clifton 71

from Say Something Back Denise Riley 72

from King John William Shakespeare 73

A Threshold Don Paterson 74

April Mona Arshi 75

The Necessity for Irony Eavan Boland 76

Seeing the Bones Maxine Kumin 78

Beattie Is Three Adrian Mitchell 80

To My Daughter Stephen Spender 81

Catrin Gillian Clarke 82

The Malarkey Helen Dunmore 83

My Mother Said Anonymous 84

My Hat Stevie Smith 85

My Complicated Daughter Julia Darling 86

To His Son Sir Walter Raleigh 87

The Word Zaffar Kunial 88

My Mother's Lips C.K. Williams 89

The Way My Mother Speaks Carol Ann Duffy 91

Alone Gabriel Griffin 92

Forty-One, Alone, No Gerbil Sharon Olds 94

Family Vona Groarke 95

Tea Ceremony Mart Jean Chan 96

Late Kick-Off Paul Henry 98

Eden Rock Charles Causley 100

Soap Suds Louis Macneice 101

To My Cottage John Clare 102

Voices Frances Bellerby 103

To A Young Child Gerard Manley Hopkins 104

Living Denise Levertov 105

The Red Hat Rachel Hadas 106

Conversation With Fantasy Mother Mary Jean Chan 107

God Is Dead - Nietzsche Elizabeth Bartlett 108

Things My Father Told Me Yvonne Reddick 109

from Hamlet William Shakespeare 110

The Mud-Spattered Recollections of a Woman Who Lived Her Life Backwards Alice Oswald 111

Whoever She Was Carol Ann Duffy 114

The Envelope Maxine Kumin 115

Mirror Maura Dooley 116

Praise Song For My Mother Grace Nichols 117

Woman to Child Judith Wright 118

December Lucille Clifton 119

Shard Ella Duffy 120

Your Poem Here 121

Editorial Reviews

"An outstanding anthology in which fathers, mothers and grownup children speak of themselves and, sometimes, to one another. . . .  It is the unsafety of the writing about family that is striking, the sense of so much being at stake. At a time when many are struggling with full nest syndrome, this book rehearses a different scene – a dance between closeness and distance." —Guardian

"Poems include mothers writing to their unborn children, and sons writing to their elderly fathers. They lay bare an entire gamut of emotions. In a year where most humans have been deprived of the physical and emotional presence of their families, this book is very poignant. . . . The collection is small and yet immense in its reach. Mention also must be made of Amy Hiley’s beautiful linocut design on the jacket which is quite exquisite. . . . The simplicity and lightness in this collection belies its emotional weight. If the reader hasn’t hugged a parent in a while, approach with caution as tears are guaranteed." —Wee Review

From the Publisher