Haiku About Children and Childhood

Poems about children are almost always written from an adult’s side of the window, and the best ones know it. Tim Gardiner’s birthday poem gives the object a voice: THE CAKE SCOFFED, and the CHILD’S CANDLE is left alone on the table. The title is Unhappy Birthday, and no child appears at all. A candle, a table and a sneer are enough to show the room.

What a parent sees

Shannon Connor Winward watches an infant sleeping and finds A STILL POND, the moment BEFORE THE PEBBLE DROPS. The poem is about the quiet before the child becomes anyone, and the pebble is the rest of life. Ashley Knowlton finds the noise: a boy’s GAP-TOOTH GRIN that SPLITS THROUGH MELANCHOLIA, with the smile passing from child to mother in the space of a line.

Snow, boots and a swing

Peggy Trojan’s girl WELCOMES FRESH SNOW and HAS NEW RED BOOTS, the full happiness of a child who owns the one right thing. Deborah Guzzi puts a child on a METAL SWING in the same weather, and the poem ends on BLOOD ON THE SNOW. Same snow, same kind of afternoon, and a very different line. Martina Litty watches a child climb MAGNOLIA BRANCHES like a ladder, and ends with a view: I SEE EVERYTHING.

Questions readers ask

Are these poems for children or about them?

They are about children, written by adults and for any reader. Jonathan Pettit’s wind song, THAT SONG MADE WIND SING, turns out to be ONLY A CHILD PLAYING WITH BELLS, and the poem is as simple as a poem for children could be, with a quiet turn only adults will feel.

Whose point of view do these poems take?

Mostly a watcher’s. A few take the child’s, but even those are remembered, and the memory sits close to the surface.

More themes to read

FamilyMemorySummerSnow and IceHomeAll themes

Last reviewed November 2026. Poems are the work of the poets credited and link to their pages in the original issues.