6 Poetry Collections for Mothers

Mother’s Day is right around the corner, setting the stage for a time of celebration and reflection. Poetry can play an integral role in your celebrations this year, whether you plan to gift a collection to a mother figure in your life or spend time mothering yourself in the ways that nurture you best. We’ve highlighted six collections to help you celebrate and feel inspired this Mother’s Day. 

A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure by Hoa Nguyen

This breathtaking poetry collection is the perfect gift for the poetry-loving mother in your life. A finalist for the 2021 National Book Award, A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure is a poetic meditation on the implications of the fall of Saigon. At once lyrical and unsettling, soothing and provocative, it tells the story of a stunt motorcyclist in an all-women Vietnamese circus troupe. 

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head: Poems by Warsan Shire

Award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire offers readers a beautifully crafted retelling of a transformation into womanhood. Drawing from her own line, pop culture, and news, Shire builds vivid and unique poems exploring migration, womanhood, Blackness, trauma, and resilience. 

Catch Me When I Fall: Poems of Mother Loss and Healing by Donna Stoneham

As difficult as it can be to talk about, grief is a natural part of relationships and doesn’t have to go unacknowledged on these special holidays. Catch Me When I Fall: Poems of Mother Loss and Healing is a nod to that grief. This moving poetry collection is an embracing solace for those recovering from loss. Through lyrical pieces depicting conversations between mother and daughter, Soneham encourages readers to remember that the journey of grief and the notion of eternal love can be powerful and transformative forces.

In a Time of Distance: and Other Poems by Alexander McCall Smith, Illustrated by Iain McIntosh

This beautiful and transporting volume is perfect for the world-traveling mother figure in your life. Taking readers on a sweeping journey from Africa to Greece, London to Mumbai, and back to Scotland, this collection will quietly shift your worldview as it makes you laugh and sigh. In a Time of Distance: and Other Poems invites us to open our hearts to the world and watch it take on a kinder and gentler shape. 

The Lost Spells by Robert MacFarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris

This elegant and delightful collection is the perfect gift for those who see magic in the everyday natural world. The Lost Spells weaves a wondrous world of red foxes, birch trees, and more with luscious poems and beautiful watercolor illustrations. Between summoning spells, words of recollection, and charms of protection, this collection is sure to bring out the magic inside every reader. 

Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

This second collection by Ocean Vuong is a deeply intimate one. Coping with the aftermath of his mother’s death, the speaker sifts through memory, loss, the meaning of family, and the implications of war. A testament to tenderness in the face of violence, Time is a Mother finds restoration and resilience in the face of violence.