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Best Poems Written by Grant Norwood

Below are the all-time best Grant Norwood poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Grant Norwood Poem

Birds At Sea

Adrift upon the ocean  
bob a bunch of resting birds.
What is it that they call themselves?
A flock or school or herd?

Could it be this feathered colony  
is a band or horde at best
No screeches, calls or gaggling,
they don’t brood or crowd or nest

Spread out like black freckles,
birds are shuffled by default.
Flavoring the ocean
dash of pepper to sea’s salt

Not gliding like mighty albatross
with wingspan strong and wide.
Or dancing with the currents
right by the dolphins side

Just floating in the middle
between the blue and green
Neither soaring in the heavens
or a coral dance routine  

And there, what’s that beneath them,
beyond their paddling feet
Just some strange attraction?
Or friends they’re yet to greet.

A sudden splash of water!
Could it be a pod of whales?  
Or the giggle of a baby seal,
nipping at their tails.

Will they look right through the jellyfish,
that flash and throb and group
to the gathering bunch of mackerel
congregating in the soup

But no, they’re not much bothered
by the party in full swing.
They just gossip amongst each other
While cleaning weathered wings

Waiting for the wind to change
On the ocean they sit tight
Regaining all that energy
needed to take flight

So what's its name, this party?
Of primp and craning necks.
In the skies they flock together
On the ocean, they’re a wreck!

Details | Grant Norwood Poem

Monkey of the Snow

Nihonzaru waits for the sun, in the valley where steaming pools warm. This is the north, the far north of ice and snow and trembling bones.  He will survive as he always does. 

Thick greying hair, flecked with flakes of snow, protects from frostbite sting. Anxious and fatherly, he browses the breeze with his nose and eyes the surrounds. Pins and needles prickle numbed skin, unrecognized.   His family eases in to the lake simmering slowly just off the boil. 

I tell him he looks like an Eskimo, wrapped up in a woolly parka. Face pink from the bitterly cold. He is tired and wary, but content. 


                                           happy winter springs 
                             cold touch hands on warming hearth;
                                         burns like summer sun


Snow monkey, throw me a snowball.

Details | Grant Norwood Poem

In the Shade of the Setting Son

Not at once, but gradually at my feet
random leaves, brown and brittle
carpenters diligently march in 
leaving my bark somewhat non-committal

Furtively, up grow the undesirables
the weedy weeds and the pesty pests
erstwhile friends in the summer sun
the heavenly snag inviting inquests

Wounded tree under forest affliction 
how to water; too little, too much
scarred by the bear claw and lightning strike  
yielding to the woodpecker, chickadee and bluebird clutch

Where only warmth now lingers, the flame once fired 
stands the smiling woodsman cleaning his plate
glistening against my trunk in the wink of a rising sun  
a sharpened ax waits and waits

Details | Grant Norwood Poem

Slippery Slide

Slippery slide


An indigent man from Calcutta
Would bathe once a week in some butter
A slippery mistake
He walked over a grate
And forever was lost down the gutter

Details | Grant Norwood Poem

Dusk In the Canyonlands

Feeling
Ma’s breath but faint
and transient time dabs   
paint white crusty lips below eyes
conquered

Waiving
days unhurried
ebbs and frames earthly tints
does charm a picture through the arch
window

Tricky
a raven’s bold
step, cawing and crispy
glints of dusky light off child’s drop  
today

Yawning
dusk tiptoes soft
steady with measured grip
of milk-warm blanket to collar 
and chin

Girl will
dream whimsical
beasts and hear dragons growl
hidden by pinnacles cloaked in
nightfall

Fading
sands slip away 
ma’s breath commends the day 
to night the sacred candle glow   
burns cold

Details | Grant Norwood Poem

The New Modern

Friction
Dereliction
Tattoo addiction

Drones
Bunk loans
"You're fired" immune deficiency syndrome

Boatloads
Troll roads
Hipster mustachioed

Deadlock
Rhetoric squawk
Locker room talk

Medication
Gene mutation
Social syndication

Accuse
Right to choose
Hashtag abuse

Getting fatter
Online chatter
whose lives matter?

Political turbidity
Global humidity
Pokemon stupidity

Going viral
Vinyl revival
Fallen idyll

Details | Grant Norwood Poem

In Search of Yeats

Oceans wend and eyes lift to the faded summer moon,
like a dried water spot on the morning sky 
Here now on the edge of a princely river
Cast a cold Eye

Over hills that shadow Drumcliff and the run of the wild boar
Stone walls smuggle narrow lanes and wandering breath
Devenir un sujet de discorde
On Life, on Death

In the absence of women and men and conventional phrase
Below hazel crosses and where fickle winds cry
We gather unknowing of those before
Horseman pass by




Cast a cold Eye
On Life, on Death
Horseman pass by

William Butler Yeats, as inscribed on his grave site.

Details | Grant Norwood Poem

Little White Shoes

i grew with my sister for months upon end
squished up and squashed in beside my best friend
we held strong together until we were due
i knew nothing at all of little white shoes

sweet tiny arms stretched to hands, fingers, thumbs
a button like nose and a cute teeny tum
fully formed legs but my feet were confused
what is this i hear about little white shoes

a foot that had turned in, faced the wrong way
bent out of shape in the womb while i lay
will walking be normal, a growing mind mused
it seems i will need some little white shoes

soon i got painted in bandage and paste
a casting from tip toes to the edge of my waist
cutting it off at the end of week two
they measured my feet for little white shoes

my leg it looks straight and where it belongs
but sorry they said your bones still aren’t strong
as doc went right through all the don’ts and the dos
ten tiny toes scrunched in little white shoes

mommy and daddy in sorrow and pain
they looked at me sadly and could not explain
why it was needed, deepened their blues
that life would begin wearing little white shoes

wait, can you hear me, i won’t fall behind
i’ll kick with my legs till those feet are aligned
they’ll ache and may bleed, perhaps leave a bruise
there’s no holding back in my little white shoes

i’ll crawl like the caterpillar who’s not scared of birds
and run like a buffalo catching up to the herd
crazy i’ll bounce, leap and box kangaroos
showing my spirit made with little white shoes

but right now i’m sleepy, legs are worn out
starting tomorrow i will kick more, no doubt
so lose all your worries as i fade off and snooze
i’ll be so much stronger for  little white shoes

Details | Grant Norwood Poem

Kid Around

Mist on the park you remind  me of home
My home, an old home, long land of white cloud 
Wistful regret of a lost rolling stone

Blurry strained view of a new weekend’s crowd
Next door to a dream in an awakening tide
Decorum with caffeine but overly proud

Soupy thick bawls exit mouths on the side
Ball mired heavy drives moist huff and puff
Back of the net with a trip and a slide

Carousel balance scares adult voice gruff
Punctures the air with familial line
A stumbling giggle is grabbed by the scruff

Place hands on your hips and presence of mind
Be kind and mop up with a waste of time weave
There’s wet on the slide and damp kid behind

Layers of grey fade where light looks to reeve  
Raising the white flag for surrendering dew 
Disappointed departure like cold on a sleeve

Jump off the swing and a left behind shoe

Details | Grant Norwood Poem

Gratitude To a Mother

when I didn’t say it
                                     i meant
                             on every single day
                                  you spent
                             deprived of sleep
                              weary and blue
                                to say thanks
                             for all the things
                                  that you do

thank you for producing two gorgeous dots
thank you for not losing the plot
thank you for going to Target and Trader Joes
thank you for picking up diapers, food and clothes
thank you for keeping the refrigerator stocked and clean
thank you for picking up yogurt, mushrooms, peaches and ice cream
thank you for working out our weekly meals
thank you for rushing to the babies when they squeal
thank you for looking after our team
thank you (again) for buying more ice cream
thank you for giving up so much sleep
thank you for dressing the girls as sheep
thank you for always making the bed
thank you for dealing with me and my sore head
thank you for being the person on who we depend
thank you for sending out thank you notes to family and friends
thank you for tolerating my bad jokes and lines
thank you for filling up my glass with wine
thank you for helping me recover from my bike fall
thank you for going back to work, tired and all
thank you for directing us through the easy and the tough
thank you for breastfeeding even when you have had enough
thank you for choosing this wonderful life
thank you for being a friend, mother and wife