Poetry from Daily Life: Where do poems come from? Everywhere!

This week’s guest on Poetry from Daily Life is Charles Ghigna — Father Goose — who lives in Homewood, Alabama. Charles has been a writer for fifty years and loves to “celebrate life through the eyes of children.” Charles has authored more than 100 books and 5,000 poems. He has given readings at The Library of Congress and at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Recent books he loved writing are "The Father Goose Treasury of Poetry for Children," Schiffer Kids, 2023 (“because it includes 101 favorite poems by the poet that introduce kids to poetry”), "Bound to Dream: An Immigrant Story," Schiffer Kids, 2024 (“because it celebrates books and family as it instills the values of heritage, perseverance, and the love of learning”), and "Southern Bred: A Memoir of Gothic Poems for Adults," Simon & Schuster, 2025 (“because it transports the reader into the heart and soul of the Deep South and offers a glimpse into its mystery and enchantment”). One unique fact about Charles is that he does not own a cell phone. ~ David L. Harrison

Where do poems come from?

I’m asked that question a lot. Where do you get your ideas? Where do poems come from?

After my school assembly programs, I like to allow time for students and teachers to ask questions. Recently a student asked that question, “Where do you get your ideas?” Without thinking, I said, “Everywhere!” I went on to explain how I’m often inspired by “little things, quiet moments, by nature, children, pets, animals, family, friends, and from the real and imagined visions I see along my daily walks.” I’m not sure that was enough, but that’s all I had for her in that fleeting moment.

Later, during a little afterschool workshop with teachers, one of them mentioned how much she liked my answer. Another teacher who is also a writer asked me to elaborate. I was caught off-guard for a second, then I thought perhaps the best answer would be to simply share an example of how I got an idea and how I developed it into a poem. I picked one of my most memorable moments of inspiration. It was a poem that was born right after my son was born.

I was awakened in the middle of the night by my son's babbles coming in over the nursery monitor. I listened for a while, then drifted back off to sleep. In the morning over coffee, I thought about that sweet midnight serenade and how it sounded as though my son was speaking in two different voices, like characters in a dream play. The possibility of his having already discovered the joy of storytelling occurred to me. At what age does imagination begin? Are we ever able to fully comprehend our own inherent powers of creation?

My son’s babbles sparked those questions — and this poem.

For my son who talks in his sleep

The babble of babies rises again in your room

and I wonder what new friends

you are making tonight.

Not yet two, you have learned the joy of dreaming,

the endless gift, my son, of making

the make-believe come true.

Before you were born

a fortune teller told your mother

we would have an author for a son.

And I want you to know

how much I love hearing

this story you are telling tonight.

Exquisite lamb,

you lie awake in dreams

conversing with the other angels.

Your waking world

will never count you in

as just another sheep.

Creation is yours for the making.

◆◆◆

Poems come from everywhere. All we have to do is look — and listen.

Charles Ghigna — Father Goose — is the author of more than 100 books from Disney, Random House, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster and Time, Inc., and more than 5,000 poems that appear in anthologies, textbooks, syndicated newspapers and magazines ranging from Harper’s and The New Yorker to Highlights and Cricket magazines. For more information, go online to FatherGoose.com.