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
