Fathers

My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy

The Ferryer by Sharon Olds Three years after my father's death

With Kit, Age 7, at the Beach by William Stafford We would climb the highest dune,

My Father on His Shield by Walt McDonald Shiny as wax, the cracked veneer Scotch-taped

Yesterday by W. S. Merwin My friend says I was not a good son

Descriptions of Heaven and Hell by Mark Jarman The wave breaks

Working Late by Louis Simpson A light is on in my father's study.

Inventing Father In Las Vegas by Lynn Emanuel If I could see nothing but the smoke

Parents by William Meredith What it must be like to be an angel

The Idea of Ancestry by Etheridge Knight Taped to the wall of my cell are 47 pictures: 47 black

my father moved through dooms of love by E. E. Cummings my father moved through dooms of love

Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night,

Daddy by Sylvia Plath You do not do, you do not do

Blood by Naomi Shihab Nye

Whose Mouth Do I Speak With by Suzanne Rancourt I can remember my father

My Father's Hat by Mark Irwin Sunday mornings I would reach

Father Outside by Nick Flynn A black river flows down the center

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden Sundays too my father got up early

Father's Song by Gregory Orr Yesterday, against admonishment

Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World by Sherman Alexie The eyes open to a blue telephone

Man of the Year by Robin Becker My father tells the story of his life

The Idiot by Charles Reznikoff With green stagnant eyes

Lay Back the Darkness by Edward Hirsch My father in the night shuffling from room to room

To Her Father with Some Verses by Anne Bradstreet Most truly honoured, and as truly dear

Father by Edgar Guest My father knows the proper way

Only a Dad by Edgar Guest Only a dad with a tired face

A Boy and His Dad by Edgar Guest A boy and his dad on a fishing-trip