Grandchild Poems

People live forever in Jacksonville and St. Petersburg and Tampa,
But you don't have to live forever to become a grampa.
The entrance requirements for grampahood are comparatively mild,
You only have to live until your child has a child.
...

Lo, now four other act upon the stage,
Childhood and Youth, the Many and Old age:
The first son unto phlegm, grandchild to water,
Unstable, supple, cold and moist's his nature
...

I followed the narrow cliffside trail half way up the mountain
Above the deep river-canyon. There was a little cataract crossed the path,
flinging itself
Over tree roots and rocks, shaking the jeweled fern-fronds, bright bubbling
...

It was a summer evening;
Old Kaspar’s work was done,
And he before his cottage door
Was sitting in the sun;
...

Portate bien,
behave yourself you always said to me.
I behaved myself
when others were warm in winter
...

It was a summer evening,
Old Kaspar's work was done,
And he before his cottage door
Was sitting in the sun,
...

Tonight, I look, thunderstruck
at the gold head of my grandchild.
Almost asleep, he buries his feet
...

A monosyllabic European called Sax
Invents a horn, walla whirledy wah, a kind of twisted
Brazen clarinet, but with its column of vibrating
Air shaped not in a cylinder but in a cone
...

Mother may I
throw food around
because I am contrary as an infant?
...

Fallen in battle in the mountains of Santa Catalina, Negros Oriental,1987 A.D., a hill warrior talks to his daughter, three years old, from the trail where his bones lie unburied


Sure I had them in my backpack,
...

never in my life could i foresee
that a school crossing guard
would be a life for me.
but looking into my grandchild's eyes
...

Straight as a nun I sit.
My fingers foolish before paper and pen
hide in my palms. I hear the slow, accented echo
How are yu? I ahm fine. How are yu?
...

We bought an electric monkey, experimenting rather
recklessly with funds carefully gathered since
grandfather's time for the purchase of a steam monkey.
...

Here I am in the garden laughing
an old woman with heavy breasts
and a nicely mapped face
...

The old sea captain has sailed the seas
So long, that the waves at mirth,
Or the waves gone wild, and the crests of these,
...

In the realm of family, a bond so grand,
Where generations intertwine, hand in hand.
A grandfather's love, a guiding light,
A grandson's presence, pure delight.
...

Under a spreading chestnut tree
...

Mean while the heinous and despiteful act
Of Satan, done in Paradise; and how
He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve,
Her husband she, to taste the fatal fruit,
...

Old man in the crystal morning after snow,
Your throat swathed in a muffler, your bent
Figure building the snow man which is meant
For the grandchild's target,
...

I bought my little grandchild Ann
A bright balloon,
And I was such a happy man
To hear her croon.
...

Grandparents cradle a love as vast the sky,
In the quiet corners of their hearts,
where time has etched its gentle lines,
a love that whispers through the years,
...

I am spoilt, and my likeness is long and beyond
I am a grandchild after all They envy my treats across the adoration
And guiding blitz betwixt the glorification
...

- on holding my first grandchild for the first time on Fathers' Day

I hold you as if handed an egg
but what broke between us was light
...

Addressing my Violin

Violin, Violin, the sound not fading,
You are worthy and attached to my life
...

We saw her again this morning…as our walk came to a close…
alongside our neighbor's fence…a solitary rose.

Alongside this fence…year in…year out…is, invariably, where she grows…
...

I took my grandchild out to play
To pass the time of day away
But in three short hours he wore me out
And put my best laid plans in doubt
...

I listen to the call for prayers in the mosques,
I listen to the bells of churches and temples,
In front of my eyes is an asteroid sent by my god,
So you are going to end this sinful world, oh my lord!
...

(for my grandmother Baby Strydom / Elizabeth Filda Strydom)

As a student I was busy in a calculus mathematics class,
when the lecturer informed me about an immediate visit to the rector.
...

We are waiting for our second grandchild to appear
If feels like we've waited for over a year
But when she arrives, we'll be filled with such bliss
We've known for some time that the baby's a 'Miss'
...

Your grandpa had a child &
his child was so very, very mild.
But then she got so very, very wild,
which resulted in Kim, his grandchild!
...