The foster care experience is complex, filled with challenges and triumphs, losses and gains. For foster parents, navigating this journey requires immense empathy, understanding, and a deep well of love. Poetry, with its ability to express profound emotions and capture the nuances of the human experience, can offer solace, insight, and a sense of shared connection. This article explores poems that speak to the heart of foster parenting, offering comfort, validation, and a deeper understanding of the children in their care.
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Finding Voices in Verse: Poetry about Foster Care
Poetry offers a powerful lens through which to view the foster care experience. It can give voice to the unspoken emotions of children separated from their birth families, exploring themes of loss, grief, hope, and resilience. For foster parents, these poems can provide a glimpse into the inner world of the children they nurture, fostering empathy and strengthening the bond between them.
Poems from the Child’s Perspective
Understanding a foster child’s perspective is crucial for effective parenting. Poems written by former foster youth offer invaluable insight into the emotional landscape of these children.
Terry Wolverton, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, captures the transient nature of foster care in her poignant poem, “Foster Care”:
Each time we come to a new place
I try to hide one shirt
beneath the mattress
just to keep the smell of home.
Sometimes they find it,
squeeze it through the wringer;
hid long enough, the cloth absorbs
the air around it, loses its memories.
This simple act of hiding a shirt becomes a powerful symbol of longing for stability and a connection to the past. The loss of that familiar scent represents the repeated uprooting and the struggle to maintain a sense of identity.
Poems for Foster Parents: Exploring the Caregiver’s Heart
Foster parenting is a journey filled with both joy and sorrow. Poems that address the caregiver’s experience can provide comfort, validation, and a sense of shared community.
Cristi Donoso Best’s poem in Entropy Magazine offers a poignant reflection on the bittersweet experience of seeing a foster child move on:
how does a person so small leave
so many things behind
a crib full of air, the nibbled books
days grow long here
among your tiny, linted socks
the sound of you not calling and your name—we are learning
what our hands are for
we wait to hear of you
to know, what our love has fostered
whether
it is better for you to remember us
or to forget
This poem beautifully captures the complex emotions of letting go, the lingering presence of the child, and the uncertainty of the future.
The Power of Shared Experience: Lemn Sissay
While not explicitly about foster care, Lemn Sissay’s poetry resonates deeply with the experience of lacking a consistent family support system. Sissay, a renowned poet and memoirist who spent his childhood in foster care, writes about the yearning for connection and belonging:
….there was ever one
Who can offer you this and more;
Who in keyless rooms
Can open doors;
Who in open doors
Can see open fields
And in open fields
See harvests yield…..
This excerpt speaks to the fundamental human need for support and guidance, a need that is often acutely felt by children in foster care.
Beyond Words: Exploring Other Resources
Beyond written poetry, resources like the short film “ReMoved” utilize poetic language and visuals to raise awareness about foster care and provide training for foster parents. These multimedia resources can offer a powerful and accessible way to engage with the complex emotions surrounding foster care.
Finding Strength and Connection Through Poetry
Poetry provides a unique and powerful way to explore the multifaceted experience of foster care. For foster parents, these poems can offer comfort, validation, and a deeper understanding of the children in their care, strengthening the bonds of love and resilience within the foster family. By engaging with these poetic voices, foster parents can gain invaluable insights and support as they navigate this challenging and rewarding journey.