Editor’s Note: In honor of Mother’s Day, I have gathered together some of my favorite poems that I’ve featured on this series over the years that consider motherhood from a plethora of perspectives, for motherhood is such a multi-faceted experience. From the perspective of the child: memories of mothers, good mothers, bad mothers, absent mothers, mothers we have lost. From the perspective of the mother, of the would-be-mother, of the once-was mother: pregnancy and childbirth, love and fear of and for our children, the kind of mother we are or are not, the kind of mother we want to be, the children we never had, the children we have lost.
Today’s selection is in honor of motherhood itself and its many faces, in honor of that imperative person without whom none of us would exist and who–for better or worse–so deeply affects who we come to be.
Today’s post is dedicated to my own mother, who has always been one of my most dedicated readers and faithful supporters, who has shaped my being from zygote through womanhood, and whose legacy as mother takes on its newest incarnation on this, my first Mother’s Day as a mother.
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.
–Erin Belieu,
“Another Poem for Mothers”
MOTHERHOOD POETRY
FROM THE SATURDAY POETRY SERIES ARCHIVES:
“Elegy for a Mother, Still Living” by Elana Bell
“Cultiver Son Potager / Growing Vegetables” by Dara Barnat; translated by Sabine Huynh
“Prayers Like Shoes” by Ruth Forman
“We Speak of August” by Valentina Gnup
State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies by Alexis Rhone Fancher
“A Poem for Women Who Don’t Want Children” by Chanel Brenner
“Psalm to Be Read While My Daughter Considers Mary” by Nicole Rollender
“Labor Pantoum” by Leslie Contreras Schwartz
“Depression” by Terri Kirby Erickson
“Dinner for the Dying” by Jen Lambert
Little Spells by Jennifer K. Sweeney
“The Invention of Amniocentesis” by Jen Karetnick
“The Sadness of Young Mothers” by Richard D’Abate
“The Balance” by Danusha Laméris
“The Committee Weighs In” by Andrea Cohen
“Mother-In-Law” by Nicole Stellon O’Donnell
“Change of Address” by Ruth Deborah Rey
Want to read more Mother’s Day poems?
Mother’s Day poetry from the Academy of American Poets
Poetry about mothers from the Academy of American Poets
As It Ought To Be 
What an amazing compilation of poetry pieces! Thus far, I’ve just copied the picture to my desktop! I’m honored to be your mother, beginning the read each of these.
Blessed Be(e) Ewe, Yew, You and little BabyBlueBoo, too, two, to ~~~~
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