23 Mother's Day Poems to Celebrate All the Moms in Your Life
"My mother was my first country, the first place I ever lived."
The simplest thing you can give Mom this Mother's Day are a few kind words. And you don't even have to think of them yourself. Some of the most famous poets in the world have celebrated motherhood in their work, writing sweet, sentimental, and sometimes funny words about these very important women in our lives. We've gone ahead and compiled a list of our favorite pieces below. Keep reading and see if any of these Mother's Day poems make enough of an impact to earn a place on her card.
RELATED: 25 Mother's Day Messages That Will Warm Her Heart.
Funny Poems About Moms
1. "Please and Thanks"
You taught me how to wash my face
And how to use the potty.
You made me eat up all my greens
And wiped my nose when snotty.
You taught me to say Please and Thanks,
Because politeness is the way.
So 'Please' can I borrow some money?
Thanks!
Just kidding. Happy Mother's Day!
— Unknown
2. "You Know Me"
Mom you know the worst of me,
My weaknesses and follies,
I know you've seen me poop my pants
and cut the heads off dollies.
You know all my most embarrassing moments,
You know that I'm a nut,
So what can I do to repay your love…
…and make sure you keep your mouth shut?
— Holly Giffers
3. "The Thought That Counts"
Roses are red, violets are blue,
Happy Mother's Day Mom!
Sorry you didn't give birth to a poet who could rhyme!
— Unknown
Mother's Day Poems Sure to Make Her Cry
4. "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!
— Rudyard Kipling
5. "Mother"
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 grey wall,
Evanescent as the reflection of a white swan,
Shimmering in broken water.
— Lola Ridge
6. "My Mother"
Who fed me from her gentle breast,
And hush'd me in her arms to rest,
And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?
My Mother.
When sleep forsook my open eye,
Who was it sung sweet hushaby,
And rock'd me that I should not cry?
My Mother.
Who sat and watch'd my infant head,
When sleeping on my cradle bed,
And tears of sweet affection shed?
My Mother.
When pain and sickness made me cry,
Who gaz'd upon my heavy eye,
And wept, for fear that I should die?
My Mother.
Who drest my doll in clothes so gay,
And taught me pretty how to play,
And minded all I had to say?
My Mother.
Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My Mother.
Who taught my infant lips to pray,
And love God's holy book and day,
And walk in wisdom's pleasant way?
My Mother.
— Ann Taylor
RELATED: 11 Homemade Mother's Day Card Ideas for Kids.
7. "To Be a Great Mother"
A great mother loves without reason,
Through winter, summer, spring, and fall
Her love is unalterable, despite the season.
A great mother knows when to talk,
And just how to listen.
She knows when to walk away,
And save the battle for another day.
Even when she's angry,
She never takes it out on others.
That's why only a few women,
Can indeed be called great mothers.
Only one woman can be the Best mother,
And Mom, That's You.
— Anonymous
8. "Sonnets Are Full of Love, and This My Tome"
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 honoured 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.
— Christina Rossetti
9. "I Am Much Too Alone in This World, Yet Not Alone"
I am much too alone in this world, yet not alone
enough
to truly consecrate the hour.
I am much too small in this world, yet not small
enough
to be to you just object and thing,
dark and smart.
I want my free will and want it accompanying
the path which leads to action;
and wants during times that beg questions,
where something is up,
to be among those in the know,
or else be alone.
I want to mirror your image to its fullest perfection,
never be blind or too old
to uphold your weighty wavering reflection.
I want to unfold.
Nowhere I wish to stay crooked, bent;
for there I would be dishonest, untrue.
I want my conscience to be
true before you;
want to describe myself like a picture I observed
for a long time, one close up,
like a new word I learned and embraced,
like the everyday jug,
like my mother's face,
like a ship that carried me along
through the deadliest storm.
— Rainer Maria Rilke
10. "Morning Song"
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.
Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.
I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.
All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.
One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.
— Sylvia Plath
RELATED: 170 Good Morning Messages for Her: Love Notes, Quotes, and Texts.
Mother's Day Poems That Rhyme
11. "Wonderful Mother"
God made a wonderful mother,
A mother who never grows old;
He made her smile of the sunshine,
And He molded her heart of pure gold;
In her eyes He placed bright shining stars,
In her cheeks fair roses you see;
God made a wonderful mother,
And He gave that dear mother to me.
— Pat O'Reilly
12. "Tribute to Mother"
A picture memory brings to me;
I look across the years and see.
Myself beside my mother's knee.
I feel her gentle hand restrain
My selfish moods, and know again.
A child's blind sense of wrong and pain.
But wiser now, a man gray-grown,
My childhood's needs are better known.
My mother's chastening love I own.
— John Greenleaf Whittier
13. "What 'Mother' Means"
"Mother" is such a simple word,
But to me there's meaning seldom heard.
For everything I am today,
My mother's love showed me the way.
I'll love my mother all my days,
For enriching my life in so many ways.
She set me straight and then set me free,
And that's what the word "mother" means to me.
— Karl Fuchs
14. "Mothers Are the Gardeners"
Mothers are the gardeners
Of wind-blown wild flowers.
They water them with happy tears,
Happy with them many years,
Even as the hours
Ring with sweet, sad melodies
Sighing through their bowers.
— Nicholas Gordon
15. "M – O – T – H – E – R"
"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold,
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.
— Howard Johnson
RELATED: 67 Quotes About Family That Perfectly Capture Your Special Bond.
Short Mother's Day Poem Ideas
16. "To My Mother"
To-day's your natal day;
Sweet flowers I bring:
Mother, accept, I pray
My offering.
And may you happy live,
And long us bless:
Receiving as you give
Great happiness.
— Christina Rossetti
17. "i will have to wait until i'm a mother"
i struggle so deeply
to understand
how someone can
pour their entire soul
blood and energy
into someone
without wanting
anything in
return
— Rupi Kaur
18. "Land"
My
mother
was
my first country,
The first place I ever lived.
— Nayyirah Waheed
19. "Mother's Day"
I see her doing something simple, paying bills,
or leafing through a magazine or book,
and wish that I could say, and she could hear,
that now I start to understand her love
for all of us, the fullness of it.
It burns there in the past, beyond my reach,
a modest lamp.
— David Young
RELATED: Love Letters for Her So Sweet, She Might Just Cry.
Poems About Mothers and Daughters
20. "Mothers"
the last time i was home
to see my mother we kissed
exchanged pleasantries
and unpleasantries pulled a warm
comforting silence around
us and read separate books
i remember the first time
i consciously saw her
we were living in a three room
apartment on burns avenue
mommy always sat in the dark
i don't know how i knew that but she did
that night i stumbled into the kitchen
maybe because i've always been
a night person or perhaps because i had wet
the bed
she was sitting on a chair
the room was bathed in moonlight diffused through
those thousands of panes landlords who rented
to people with children were prone to put in windows
she may have been smoking but maybe not
her hair was three-quarters her height
which made me a strong believer in the samson myth
and very black
i'm sure i just hung there by the door
i remember thinking: what a beautiful lady
she was very deliberately waiting
perhaps for my father to come home
from his night job or maybe for a dream
that had promised to come by
"come here" she said "i'll teach you
a poem: i see the moon
the moon sees me
god bless the moon
and god bless me"
i taught it to my son
who recited it for her
just to say we must learn
to bear the pleasures
as we have borne the pains
— Nikki Giovanni
21. "My Miracle Mother"
Mom, I look at you
and see a walking miracle.
Your unfailing love without limit,
your ability to soothe my every hurt,
the way you are on duty, unselfishly,
every hour, every day,
makes me so grateful
that I am yours, and you are mine.
With open arms and open heart,
with enduring patience and inner strength,
you gave so much for me,
sometimes at your expense.
You are my teacher,
my comforter, my encourager,
appreciating all, forgiving all.
Sometimes I took you for granted, Mom,
but I don't now, and I never will again.
I know that everything I am today
relates to you and your loving care.
I gaze in wonder
as I watch you being you—
my miracle, my mother.
— Joanna Fuchs
22. "A Mother's Love"
A Mother's love is something
that no one 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 splendored miracle
man cannot understand
And another wondrous evidence
of God's tender guiding hand.
— Helen Steiner Rice
23. "B (If I Should Have A Daughter)"
If I should have a daughter… Instead of "Mom", she's gonna call me "Point B." Because that way, she knows that no matter what happens, at least she can always find her way to me. And I'm going to paint the solar system on the back of her hands so that she has to learn the entire universe before she can say "Oh, I know that like the back of my hand."
She's gonna learn that this life will hit you, hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up so it can kick you in the stomach. But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air. There is hurt, here, that cannot be fixed by band-aids or poetry, so the first time she realizes that Wonder-woman isn't coming, I'll make sure she knows she doesn't have to wear the cape all by herself. Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal. Believe me, I've tried.
And "Baby," I'll tell her "don't keep your nose up in the air like that, I know that trick, you're just smelling for smoke so you can follow the trail back to a burning house so you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him. Or else, find the boy who lit the fire in the first place to see if you can change him."
But I know that she will anyway, so instead I'll always keep an extra supply of chocolate and rain boats nearby, 'cause there is no heartbreak that chocolate can't fix. Okay, there's a few heartbreaks chocolate can't fix. But that's what the rain boots are for, because rain will wash away everything if you let it.
I want her to see the world through the underside of a glass bottom boat, to look through a magnifying glass at the galaxies that exist on the pin point of a human mind. Because that's how my mom taught me. That there'll be days like this, "There'll be days like this my momma said" when you open your hands to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises. When you step out of the phone booth and try to fly and the very people you wanna save are the ones standing on your cape. When your boots will fill with rain and you'll be up to your knees in disappointment and those are the very days you have all the more reason to say "thank you," 'cause there is nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it's sent away.
You will put the "wind" in win some lose some, you will put the "star" in starting over and over, and no matter how many land mines erupt in a minute be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called life.
And yes, on a scale from one to over-trusting I am pretty damn naive but I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar. It can crumble so easily but don't be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it.
"Baby," I'll tell her "remember your mama is a worrier but your papa is a warrior and you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more."
Remember that good things come in threes and so do bad things and always apologize when you've done something wrong but don't you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining.
Your voice is small but don't ever stop singing and when they finally hand you heartbreak, slip hatred and war under your doorstep and hand you hand-outs on street corners of cynicism and defeat, you tell them that they really ought to meet your mother.
— Sarah Kay
Wrapping Up
That's it for our list of Mother's Day poems, but be sure to check back in with us again soon. We know it's not always easy opening up to the people you love, which is why Best Life is committed to helping you find the right words for absolutely every occasion!
