Poetry About Family Problems

Family is our first country, and often, our first war zone. These poems explore the jagged edges of domestic life - the secrets kept for generations, the distance between parents and children, and the heavy inheritance of trauma.

Yet, they also speak to the enduring nature of the bond. Even in estrangement, the tether remains. We navigate these relationships with a map drawn by our ancestors, trying to find a way to love each other across the chasm of our differences.

Featured Poems

The Dinner Table

The unspoken tension of a family gathering.

We pass the salt like a grenade, careful not to pull the pin. The roast beef is dry, but we chew with enthusiasm, filling the silence with the sound of mastication.

Father looks at his plate, Mother looks at the window, and I look at the clock, wondering how long it takes for a family to drown in open air.

- James Silence

Heirloom

Inheriting more than just physical traits.

You gave me your eyes, blue as the summer sky. But you also gave me your storm, the sudden thunder that shakes the house.

I try to be gentle, to keep the sky clear, but sometimes I feel these hands curling into fists that belong to a grandfather I never knew. I am a museum of your mistakes.

- Sarah Legacy

The Wall

Estrangement and barriers.

We built it brick by brick, not with mortar, but with words unsaid. Layer upon layer of "fine" and "okay," until I could no longer see you standing in the kitchen.

Now we shout over the top, muffled voices from another land. I don't know who you are anymore, but I still know the sound of your cough.

- Robert Frosty

Classic Voices

This Be The Verse

by Philip Larkin (1971)

A famous, cynical take on parental influence.

They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.

Daddy

by Sylvia Plath (1965)

A powerful, dark exploration of a father-daughter relationship.

You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived like a foot For thirty years, poor and white, Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Micro Verses

Blood is thicker, yes, but also harder to clean.

- Cleaner

We are branches on a tree that has forgotten its roots.

- Geneologist

Home is where the heart hurts the most.

- Lost Chlid

We are the echo of a shout made generations ago.

- Descendant

Deeper Explorations

Forgiveness

The hardest work.

Letting Go

I forgive you not because you deserve it, but because I am too tired to carry this stone.

- Grace Freeman

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