52 Poems About People

The titles and a one line description of the poems are shown below.

They appear in alphabetical order of title to make them easier to find.

All the poems are about people even if one seems to be about a bed sheet

The characters range in age from a 7 year old remembering when he was three to an old guy struggling with a jigsaw puzzle and reviewing his life. Some are philosophical but in a folksy rather than academic way.

Je ne Suis pas Charlie was written against the tirade of hatred that followed the Paris killings and was originally simply called Respect. Many are sentimental, some just written to make you laugh, others to make you think again by considering a new perspective.

Try setting a time aside each week and dipping in to a poem you have time to read and that suits your mood.

Buy the collection for loved ones and make the same suggestion - maybe they'll think kindly of you once a week for a few minutes in their busy lives.

THE POEMS

Always Remember

-A reminder not to lose ourselves in life

A Mind Disturbed

-Three short phases of a worrying life

An Intimate Relationship

-Re-establishing links with a son

A Rosy Glow Returns

-Memories of a grandfather

Beer-on-the-Jetty Philosophy

-A Caribbean father's reflections on life

Bordering

-A long life reviewed as a jigsaw is completed

Breaking Through

-A plea for a return to a complex love

Community Servant

-A drug dealer to kids defends his role

Dialogue with a Teenager

-A mother and daughter discuss midnight

Drought

-A brief dystopian view of the future

Easter

-A secular family's light-hearted holiday story

Empty Space

-A brief chilling scene

First Experience of Warmth

-A memory of a childhood event

First Toy, First Love, First Loss

-A sad account of childhood loss

Getting Spliced

-A short formal poem about the act of marriage

Graham Greene

-A tribute to a favourite author

Hands

-Images that tumble into a story

Hostess

-Four lines of character assassination

Je ne Suis pas Charlie

-A response to the outcry about the cartoonist

Lament

-About not liking the loss of English

Lifelong Love

-A tribute to parenting

Lives Change

-A child recalls a day at the zoo

Lost at Sea

-A boy on a beach with his dad

Lucky Billy Taylor

-A Lancashire monologue

Massaging Expectations

-A village girl is disappointed in her career

Monster

-A scare about digital intrusion

Montage

-A middle-aged man reflects on events

Nearing the End

-Confusion and hope in old age

No

-A light-hearted definition of the word

Now and Then

-A visit to an old haunt to rekindle love

On the Bus Today

-A brief description of a memorable journey

Opinion Revised

-A boy comes to terms with his brother

Rhythms of the Heart

-Some whimsical questions unanswered

Sheet Life

-A brief reflection about a bedsheet

Split

-A woman escapes from a bad marriage

Stab

-A woman fantasises about revenge

Sublime Inspiration

-Two women take a step beyond friendship

The Comfort Zone

-A long wallow in feel-good scenarios

The Night Shift

-A saga about the antics of hotel guests

The Spirit of the Child

-A formal poem of life's stages

The Tender Touch

-Innocence as the essence of love

Transformation

-A man frees himself for love

Unanswerable Questions

-How, why, what, where, when? In 10 lines

Waning Protest

-An old man regrets his condition

W B Yeats under Scrutiny

-A brief fantasy at English passport control

Welcome

-A message to a prospective daughter-in-law

We Live to Regret

-A formal account of the mistakes we make

We were Five

-A woman recalls her first sexual experience

When you are Seventy

-Achievements at seventy chronicled briefly

Who's that Knocking?

-A young girl explains her fear of callers

Writers

-A light-hearted look at writers and poets

You are a Mystery

-A tribute to love and human complexity