Family Poems

Family poems are about where we come from, who we are, the roots that make us reconizable to our friends. No poet can be true to himself and his poetry without acknowledging the family threads that criss-cross his artistic life.

These are mine.

• A Young Man's Game
  Some things fill his eyes with tears, and crying is a young man's game.
• Abstract
  My children love me in the abstract.
• At the Window
  Sooner or later it is our own turn at the window.
• Chalk
  My writing will set your teeth on edge, like chalk on a blackboard.
• Editing Our Sons
  Writing our lives onto the pages of our children.
• I Leave It All to You
  And lie or fiction, I leave it all to you, protesting that it was not me, but my shadow.
• Legacy
  The twistedness of what we leave as legacy might yet be redeemed.
• Mind Drift
  I see myself in the constancy of other lives.
• My Old Daddy
  Remembering the man by bits and pieces.
• Perfect Child
  What are we each, if not the perfect children that stun us with their innocence?
• Putting it to You
  Is 'family life' but a mystified nostalgia?
• The Smell of Tweed and Tobacco
  I cannot read this poem of my father publicly without weeping, though I periodically try and always fail.
• This Morning
  I let you down. It was a small infringement upon our love, but one I can't forget.