My mom, like many of us, has never been terribly excited about Valentine's Day. She doesn't care about flowers or chocolates or any of the typical Valentine's Day chum. But as an English major and a former English teacher, poetry is her love language. I've narrowed down a whole lot of fluffy poems to create this lovely list of Valentine's Day poems for moms, because that's exactly what my mom will be happy to see in her mailbox this holiday — so long as it's attached to a good stack of photos of her grandkids.
Your own mom might not be the only person you're on the lookout for sweet Valentine's ideas for. Maybe you're on the hunt for a sentimental option for your wife or your kids' mother. Straying away from the traditional card and flowers combo can be a little daunting at first, but this list of poems offers quite a range that might speak to your unique relationship with the special mom in your life.
Whether you tuck a handwritten version of any of these poems into a bunch of flowers or tape them atop a heart-shaped box of chocolates, if your number one mom has a thing for poets, these these words are the sweetest gift she could receive on Valentine's Day.
1
"A Mother's Love" By Helen Steiner Rice
If you've ever wondered who is behind all those greeting card poems, look no further than poet Helen Steiner Rice. In fact, according to the Helen Steiner Rice Foundation website, her first books were compilations of poems she wrote and mailed her own friends and family.
Until I became a mom, I really didn't understand the depth of my mom's love for me, and how darn patient she has been with me over all these years. Good grief, have I been a brat on more than one occasion! "A Mother's Love" by Helen Steiner Rice captures the enigmatic quality of a mother's love, perfect for Valentine's Day. It goes like this:
A Mother's love is something
that no on can explain,
It is made of deep devotion
and of sacrifice and pain,
It is endless and unselfish
and enduring come what may
For nothing can destroy it
or take that love away . . .
It is patient and forgiving
when all others are forsaking,
And it never fails or falters
even though the heart is breaking . . .
It believes beyond believing
when the world around condemns,
And it glows with all the beauty
of the rarest, brightest gems . . .
It is far beyond defining,
it defies all explanation,
And it still remains a secret
like the mysteries of creation . . .
A many splendoured miracle
man cannot understand
And another wondrous evidence
of God's tender guiding hand.
2
"To My Mother" By Robert Louis Stevenson
As moms, we all know in our hearts that we should appreciate the little moments with small children scurrying around, but sometimes it takes a poet like Robert Louis Stevenson to put that feeling into words. Stevenson was a Scottish author and prolific world traveler, as explained by the website dedicated to his memory. He crammed many words and adventures into his 44 years, and his life is one worth learning more about — perhaps alongside your mom!
You too, my mother, read my rhymes
For love of unforgotten times,
And you may chance to hear once more
The little feet along the floor.
3
"Mother, A Cradle To Hold Me" By Maya Angelou
What woman (or man, for that matter) doesn't love a poem by the legendary Maya Angelou? If you imagine her melodic voice as you read the first two stanzas of her poem "Mother, a Cradle to Hold Me", it's even more moving. If your mom is a Maya Angelou fan as well, you could pick up a copy of Mom & Me & Mom, the story of Angelou's relationship with her mother, which was as complex as many of our own relationships with our mothers are.
It is true
I was created in you.
It is also true
That you were created for me.
I owned your voice.
It was shaped and tuned to soothe me.
Your arms were molded
Into a cradle to hold me, to rock me.
The scent of your body was the air
Perfumed for me to breathe.
Mother,
During those early, dearest days
I did not dream that you had
A large life which included me,
For I had a life
Which was only you.
4
"Mother O' Mine" By Rudyard Kipling
Does your mother have a flair for the dramatic? How about this poem, "Mother O' Mine", by Rudyard Kipling. The author, who penned The Jungle Book, which we all know and love from the Disney animated version, describes the love he knows his mother has for him, in the most declarative language. Can't you picture him standing on top of a hill, shouting to the rooftops about his mother o'mine?
If I were hanged on the highest hill,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
I know whose love would follow me still,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were drowned in the deepest sea,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
I know whose tears would come down to me,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me whole,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
5
"Lessons From Mumma" By Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur isn't only a New York Times best-selling poet, she also illustrates her own books with simple line drawings. If you are on the look-out for a gift to help your kids make their mom, this is a sweet option. Set them up with a few black markers and white paper, and ask them to draw their mom (or a heart, if you have even smaller kids), in the style that Kaur uses. Slip in a printed copy of her poem "Lessons From Mumma" from her second collection of poems, The Sun and Her Flowers.
When it came to listening
My mother taught me silence
If you are drowning their voice with your
Show will you hear them she asked
Shen it came to speaking
She said do it with commitment
Every word you say
Is your own responsibility
When it came to being
She said be tender and tough at once
You need to be vulnerable to live fully
But rough enough to survive it all
When it came to choosing
She asked me to be thankful
For the choices I had that
She never had the privilege of making
6
"Another Poem For Mothers" By Erin Belieu
All of what I learned about poetry came from my high school English class, but what immediately strikes you when you read "Another Poem for Mothers" by Erin Belieu is the imagery. She perfectly describes the reassuring quality of a mom when she writes of her mother's hands:
Mother, I’m trying
to write
a poem to you—which is how most
poems to mothers must
begin—or, What I’ve wanted
to say, Mother...but we
as children of mothers,
even when mothers ourselves,
cannot bear our poems
to them. Poems to
mothers make us feel
little again. How to describe
that world that mothers spin
and consume and trap
and love us in, that spreads
for years and men and miles?
Those particular hands that could
smooth anything: butter on bread,
cool sheets or weather. It’s
the wonder of them, good or bad,
those mother-hands that pet
7
"Mother" By Lola Ridge
One day, when I'm old and crotchety, I hope my children remember me as Irish poet Lola Ridge describes, "less an image in my mind than a luster." Born in Dublin in the late 1800's, Ridge grew up in mining towns in New Zealand and Australia before immigrating to the United States and becoming an activist on the topics of race, class and gender issues. She was an advocate for women’s rights, gay rights, and the rights of immigrants, according to Poets.org, so her poetry would be an awesome gift for a mom who cares about those causes.
Your love was like moonlight
turning harsh things to beauty,
so that little wry souls
reflecting each other obliquely
as in cracked mirrors . . .
beheld in your luminous spirit
their own reflection,
transfigured as in a shining stream,
and loved you for what they are not.
You are less an image in my mind
than a luster
I see you in gleams
pale as star-light on a gray wall . . .
evanescent as the reflection of a white swan
shimmering in broken water.
8
"Sonnets Are Full Of Love, And This My Tome" By Christina Rossetti
Most of us know Christina Rossetti's work because she penned The Christmas Carol, but you'll probably enjoy this sonnet dedicated to her mother. Increasingly known as one of the major Victorian poets, Rossetti's words about her first love will surely touch your mother's heart.
Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome
Has many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.
Check out Romper's new video series, Bearing The Motherload, where disagreeing parents from different sides of an issue sit down with a mediator and talk about how to support (and not judge) each other’s parenting perspectives. New episodes air Mondays on Facebook.