Fatherhood: Family Ties Poetry Prompt

I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by the little scraps of wisdom.”—Umberto Eco

To children, fathers are larger than life. They operate noisy machinery, heroically fix the unfixable toy, hammer their thumbs, thunder throughout the house, kiss boo-boo’s, and offer lessons no one else could teach. The man—the myth, whether present or in absence—shapes a memory. It’s natural that the subject of fatherhood is fixed firmly in poetry.

The hardworking, blue-collar dad in Robert Hayden’s poem, “Those Winter Sunday’s”, pays homage to a man known by his dutiful labor:

Those Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

—by Robert Hayden

Sometimes, though, fatherhood shows up with a good dose of slapstick entertainment. Robert Pinsky once quipped,

From Polonius to Homer Simpson, fatherhood has sometimes been associated with comedy. Like all notions of dignity, fatherhood, in its dignity, invites the banana peel fall of satire.”

William Carlos Williams writes a witty poem about a dad who dances around in the altogether and proclaims his awesomeness as everyone sleeps (when no one can judge otherwise):

Danse Russe

If when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,-
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
“I am lonely, lonely,
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!”
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,-

Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?

—by William Carlos Williams

Try it: Fatherhood Poems

Think about fatherhood and the traits or characteristics that make a man a father. Write a heartfelt tribute to a dad who deserves the gift of a poem instead of another tie. You can also write a poem, remembering fondly, a funny dad moment. Dad’s do goofy things. You should definitely seal the moment in a poem and share it with us! 🙂

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Featured Poem

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here is a family poem from Karen we enjoyed:

—by Karen J.

Photo by Justin Schuck, Creative Commons via Flickr.

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Heather Eure

Heather Eure has served as the Poetry Editor for the late Burnside Collective and Special Projects Editor for us at Tweetspeak Poetry. Her poems have appeared at Every Day Poems. Her wit has appeared just about everywhere she's ever showed up, and if you're lucky you were there to hear it.

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