“Crying Children”
Crying children whisper through my dreams,
their voices faint and dying
from hunger and from fading hope.
I hold my heart untouched
behind a wall of patient waiting.
A few more months, my heart,
a few months only and they’ll die,
their crying cease.
Then only ghosts of crying children
will disturb your sleep.
Originally published as “Ghosts of Crying Children” in the January/February 1980 issue of OURS (as of 1994, the Adoptive Families Magazine), “Crying Children” has since been re-published in other venues). [Minor revisions.]
Quilted Poetry 
Wow, that is powerful writing. Very moving.
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Thank you. I’m glad that you like it. This poem is one that’s been most often requested, I think, for republication over the decades.
It is one of those poems that I can’t perform at a poetry reading without getting too choked up to get through it.
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Really from the heart, and that energy comes through the words. I am not surprised by it being most requested or by the emotion you feel when reciting it. Too beautiful not to share though, so thanks. Xx
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