22 Profound Poems That Will Get You Through Hard Times

22 Profound Poems That Will Get You Through Hard Times.

Poems about hard times: The journey of a human person isn’t a bed of roses. Our paths are marked with thorns, poisons, and valleys. It is very important that as individuals we should be open to unflattering situations that might show up in our lives.

Hard times are part of the human conditions so poems about hard times are necessary to give comfort and a sense of direction. Poems about hard times are not written to glorify our down moments in life, they are written to give us comfort and hope for better days.

1. A Cradle Song

Sweet dreams form a shade
O’er my lovely infant’s head;
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams
By happy, silent, moony beams.

Sweet sleep with soft down
Weave thy brows an infant crown.
Sweet sleep, Angel mild,
Hover o’er my happy child.

Sweet smiles in the night
Hover over my delight;
Sweet smiles, Mother’s smiles,
All the livelong night beguiles.

Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,
Chase not slumber from thy eyes.
Sweet moans, sweeter smiles,
All the dovelike moans beguiles.

Sleep sleep, happy child,
All creation slept and smil’d;
Sleep sleep, happy sleep,
While o’er thee thy mother weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Holy image I can trace.
Sweet babe, once like thee,
Thy maker lay and wept for me,

Wept for me for thee for all,
When he was an infant small.
Thou his image ever see.
Heavenly face that smiles on thee,

Smiles on thee on me on all,
Who became an infant small,
Infant smiles are His own smiles,
Heaven and earth to peace beguiles.
– William Blake

2. Forget

Forget how to care.
Forget how to trust.
Forget how to love.
For my sanity, I must.

Been burned by the promises
and many a lie.
I’ve sat back and watched
as my feelings all die.

I vowed I would love,
honor and cherish him always.
But he treats us like we are
invisible… daily.

How can anyone like that
deserve love for me.
My children and I
deserve to be free.

Free from the arguing,
the names and the drinking.
Free from the insults
for even just thinking.

For now I will live
as the “unaffected me”.
If only to salvage
my diminishing sanity.
– Angie M.

3. Mother To Son

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor-
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So, boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps.
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now-
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
– Langston Hughes

4. Bridge Over Troubled Water

Flowing, flowing, gently it flows.
A leaf hits the surface
Downstream it goes.
A bird passes by
It swoops and it dives
Then up, up, up it goes
Off into the sky.

Then smashing, thrashing, writhing and crashing,
Rocks breaking, ground shaking,
Water foaming, sides eroding,
Then…
Calm. And the river flows on.
– Unknown

5. My Papa’s Waltz

The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt
– Theodore Roethke

6. Recession

Recession is similar to the flu – it’s contagious,
If bigger brother nation caught the flu,
The younger brother is going to get it too.
Although financially they take necessary measures.

We often have to bear the brunt of the big nation;
Our currency, as if attacked by virus depreciates.
Then banks remedied by increasing interest rates;
The economy collapsed or ground to slow motion.

Big brother shivers and sweaty under recession,
Little brother’s economy heats up creeps till it gets
To a point where spending begins to hurt our pockets.
Thousands will lose jobs – lining up for their daily rations.

We shop for what we need or buy only essential goods,
Forgo luxurious items or go for window shopping.
Looking at clothes staring at cars we dream of driving,
The rich live well, driving in style, stuff buffet of foods.

Our hope for recovery means we’re back as before,
Stocks and shares, leaping like salmons in the sun,
The bulls out of the pen are on the run,
The bears returned to their caves to hibernate once more.

Till then we will be spending less as we had to depend,
On coupons and stamps while things such
As travelling, weekend outings, not so much.
But worries and aches and pains will subside once flu ends.
– Unknown

7. Still Here

Life keeps knocking me down
but I stand here resilient
still a worthwhile mind
even if not as brilliant

I may seem scattered
but that illusion is shattered
when you learn I’m so organized
professional even with brain compromised

They told me I might not be able to talk Would’ve lost
my career if I listened to doc
I said “hell no! I will not be idle”
fought with my life-force vital

Helpless and silent would NOT be my life
I’ll take the risks, put me under the knife
Eyes half work but see more than most
No way on disability would I coast

Mind gorgeously cracked
voluptuously racked
deliciously dark
adventure to embark

Most days I trash myself expecting more
but I accomplish so much when I’m sore
It’s time I recognize and be proud
I could have laid down but I stood up loud
– Aphasiana

8. Surviving The Storm

Along the foothills marsh-mists rise and fall;
Through glass I see their trail of fog across
The window-sky and sense a coming squall.
The leaves of shadow-deer and pine now toss
And curl around my shaky beach-craft words.
Alone at summer’s end…limned sea waves roll
And ice-glass glaciers flash like slashing swords.
How store away this year…this summer scroll?

Join walkers in suburban malls, or hide
From man, and watch the sailship’s rigging blow?
I’ll live a hermit’s life… while worlds collide
Now caught in cosmic strife, and hail, and snow…
Among storm traces write o rhythmic sea,
Till springtime comes again, and sets me free.
– Thelma Schiller

9. The Night Guard

The shadows on my bedroom wall are growing dark and long.
I hear the voices rise and fall, their language harsh and strong.
Do they know I can hear their fight? Maybe they just don’t care
that their child is locked in fright, heart pounding in both ears.

My sister runs, climbs in my bed, and pulls my blanket close.
She softly shakes her little head, awakened by the noise.
She sobs because we hear Mom cry. I try to soothe her tears,
while sniffing back all of mine. We night guards can’t show fear.

I rock her, singing nursery rhymes to drown the angry fight.
We sit as one in frozen time, hoping to last the night.
She’s peaceful in my little cot; we’re finally okay
when sunlight glows; a tiny spot leads us safe to day.

We get up, get dressed, get the bus, and sometimes get to eat.
But through it all, there’s two of us together on the street.
My job is done until tonight; we made it through that risk.
So teacher, please, forgive me if my head is on my desk.
– Susan B. Lovejoy

10. Through For Good

I come home every night
and in my eyes
you can see fear and fright
my parents argue and raise their fists
it’s times like this I want to
slit my wrists
they don’t care what I see or hear
they don’t even care if I am near
I want to leave here so bad
but if I do I know I’ll be sad
I love them both to death
but all of this fighting
seems to take my breath
I ask God what I should do
but it seems as if he’s even through
I go to my room and shut the door
and when they found me
I was dead lying on the floor.
– Amber L. Owens

11. My Water My Blood

Is your family still together, just like way back when?
Do you stick by each other through thick and thin?

Or do you hardly know the one that you call brother?
And do you ponder why you seldom talk to mother?

It wasn’t always this way, I can recall there was a time…
We were all together and we were doing fine.

We all have our problems, please don’t get me wrong…
But I can remember a time when life was still a song.

So much has happened to tear us into pieces…
Broken hearts never mended and hatred still increases…

Once I became an adult and reality banged on my door,
I realized that this was not a family anymore…

It is small and broken, some here and there…
Left to wonder who really cares.

It brings a storm of resentment from what has become…
The events of this torn home left me feeling numb.

Even though I now have a life that I cherish
I love my family and I would never let perish…

The foundation I’ve built from what I’ve learned…
The feeling of warmth for which I yearned.

I once missed the ways I learned to live without…
No stronger than the flame which we blew out.

Now I’ve built a fire and it lights up the sky…
With a deep devotion that I will never let die.

Your family is there, whether you want it or not…
It just depends on who you’ve got.

Blood doesn’t make us more loyal than a friend…
Nor does it establish who’s there in the end.

Let them go if they just never pulled through.
Sometimes you find, you’ll always have to.

I never took it straight to the heart…
Just thought of it as two worlds apart.

So it stands today that I feel whole…
Regardless of the past that lives within my soul.
– Mandy V. Villareal

12. The Home He Knew Best

A mother and son were parted at birth,
Wrenched from each other on this terrible earth,
With no place to go she walks through the night,
Looking for somewhere till the morning light.

Lonely and sad and with no family or friend,
Shunned and broken hearted – too delicate to mend,
She searched for a room to lay down her poor head,
Suffering her punishment for being unwed.

She spotted an ad. offering “bed and full board”,
For someone to clean; this could not be ignored,
She located the house and knocked on the door,
Praying that no one had been there before.

A kindly old lady answered her call,
Inviting her in to the fashionable hall,
She said she’d come about the job advertised,
And could start immediately, if so desired.

A few questions asked and she was given the job,
But emotions overcame her, she broke down and sobbed.
The kindly old lady put her hand on her arm,
Said, “There’s no need for tears, here you’ll come to no harm.”

And so for the mother a new life begins,
Toiling each day but remembering her sins,
Her little child gone, would she see him again?
Could she go through her life with this terrible pain?

The child was placed at an early date,
Along with three others of similar fate,
To a home where life was abundant with love,
And God watched over from his throne up above.

But the day finally came they had to leave this behind,
And enter a school where no love would they find,
Beatings and bullying were ‘the order of the day,
They had no one to turn to, it’s here they must stay.

But the boys from this school were different to others,
Not only because of the absence of mothers,
It was survival of the fittest, you couldn’t be weak,
You kept your mouth shut and not be a sneak.

Night-times the boys were risen from bed,
Given a beating, but ne’er a tear was shed,
Food for the young ones was whisked away,
Taken by big boys…who learned that in their day.

Years went by till the mother found her son,
Brought up oppressively, unknowing what she done,
But he holds nothing against her, it was the choice she made,
And now he forgives her for the penalties THEY’VE paid.

But the happiness he was seeking just never came,
Those important years had extinguished the flame,
The difficulty being the adjustments required,
And mistakes on BOTH sides to be rectified.

Unjust expectations created concern,
As much as he tried, there was too much to learn,
For a family life meant sharing and giving,
With trust and love, NOT the way we were living.

Sometimes he wondered, would life have been better,
If he’d stayed at the school and not even met her,
For though life at the school was hardly a rest,
It was after all the HOME he knew best.
– Ken Budden.

13. Life Is About Surviving

Do not be a nut,
Life is truly not
About winning and losing;
It is about surviving;
It is about enjoying life to the fullest,
And at every opportunity,
To be the best
That you can be.

Do what you can do today.
You are who you can be presently.
Time is walking away,
Without having feet,
Without wearing shoes or sandals.
Time, like a fleet
Of geese or cardinals,
Is constantly flying away.

Time brings
Tomorrow,
Who sometimes sings
Happiness or sorrow.
One never knows,
When the wind blows,
What kind of sound
That the leaves make,
When they hit the ground,
For God’s sake.
– Hebert Logerie

14. Somehow Surviving

Something told me
I told you
yesterday
I wrote a song
with you in my head
screaming
while I lay on my bed
feeling those reelings of dread
repeating the words that were said…
suddenly solitude
seemed sufficient
silently i tried to
be efficient
I tried to stop trying
lied to stop lying
cried to stop crying
Somehow we’re all dying
…its a strange place to be
but somehow we’re surviving
– Kristin Schanbacher

15. What About Me

My sister gets all the love
And support she needs
She has always been first
In your mind and heart

But what about me

My brother gets anything
He wants even when he
Doesn’t deserve it at all
Because he’s the baby

But what about me

I’m the one you can
Count on to watch the
Animals or the kid when
You go somewhere

But what about me

I’m the one that is the
Last person to know
What’s going on and
The last one you consider

But what about me

What If I want to go
With you when you go
What if I want to do
The same things with you

But what about me

Why don’t I get the same
Kind of love and support
That they get, aren’t I
Just as important

But what about me

Don’t I deserve the same
Consideration as them
Don’t I deserve the same
Kind of love and support

But what about me

Am I not your daughter
Don’t I deserve the same
As your other daughter
Or your son

But what about me

If I try to tell you how
I feel you get angry and
Upset that I feel this way
Why can’t you understand

But what about me

I can’t understand why
My feelings make you
Angry and why I am the
One that always gets left behind

But what about me

Why don’t you take me
With you or plan things
So that I can go with you
Or be more involved in your life

But what about me

It’s like you don’t know me
Or even care to know me
So I guess I’ll just leave
You three alone

But what about me

Don’t call me if you want
Someone to watch the animals
Or the kid until you include me
Because I want to be included

But what about me

I am no longer the watcher
I guess I will make it by myself
Until I feel I am accepted by the
Family I was born into

But what about me
Until then, I stand alone
– Jami McCormick

16. Family

Family can make you angry
Sometimes they make you sad
But family never gives up on you
Even when you’re bad
Sometimes family hurts you
They cut you to the core
They can yell, and scream, say
hurtful words
Then turn and slam the door
What makes this passion run so deep
Why does it even matter?
Because their bonds, their blood,
their hearts, are tied forever after
– Liz

 

17. The Surviving Thought

How long, ah me! this weary heart hath striven
With vanity, and with a wild desire!
How long, and yet how long, must this frail bark be driven,
While these unsteady, fitful hope-lights given,
One after one expire?

These earthly visions prove, alas! unstable;
And we are all too prone to clutch them fast,
Though false, aye, falser than the veriest fable,
To which a ‘thread of gossamer is cable-‘
They cannot-cannot last!

Our eye must soon behold the appalling writing-
The settlement of proud Belshazzar’s doom!
These timely buds must early feel a blighting-
This earthly strife-ah, ’tis a sorry fighting!
The victory-the Tomb!

The dreams fond youth in years agone had cherished;
The hopes that wove a rainbow tissue bright-
Are they all gone-forever gone, and perished-
Ev’n the last bud my silent tears had nourished-
Have all been Death’s delight?

And will he come and mock me with his booty,
And twirl my visions round his bony finger?
And will he tell my heart no other beauty
Upon the earth is mine-no other duty,
Than for his mandate linger?

Up, rise, thou vital spark! not yet extinguished,
Assert thy heritage-exert thy might;
Though in the sloughs of sorrow thou hast languished,
And pain and wrong’s envenomed part out-anguished,
One ray breaks through the night.

There is, there is one blessed thought surviving;
The heart’s sure fulcrum in the saddest strait-
An overture to this unequal striving-
A hope, a home, a last and blest arriving!
Bear up, my heart, and wait.

Bear up, poor heart! be patient, and be meekful;
A calm must follow each untoward blast;
With steady eye look forward to the sequel;
The common road will then seem less unequal,
That brings us home ‘at last.’

Come trial, pain, and disappointment’s shiver,
Ye are my kindsmen-brothers of this clay;
We must abide and I must bear the quiver
A little while, and we shall part forever-
Beyond the surges of that shoreless river
Ye cannot ‘come away.’
– David James Scott

18. A Mother’s Pain For Her Children

Often times I sit and wonder
How mother always sits and ponders
Her eyes, her stare, are so far
As if she has the whole world to bear.

I know she’s sad
But when she sees me she smiles
Acting very glad
Sometimes I catch her crying,
And I ask myself
Is it worth all this trying?

Today she had a rough day
I heard the yelling and the cursing
And my father say
“I wish you would just stop nagging and stay away”
My mother gasped and cried, then knelt in prayer.

She goes through life living unhappy
Her children’s smiles are kind and pure.
Her struggles and abuse she endures
Trying to hide the pain
She stays in this situation, hoping her children will ultimately gain.
– Marsha M. Martinez

19. Toughest Of Times

During the toughest of times we must band together!
When the bad weather hits us straight on,
we have to get through that rough storm.
Holding each other with a tight grip
so that each one of us do not slip.
For that rough weather will take us on,
trying to tear us apart one by one.
So family let’s hold on to each other with all our might!
And when that bad weather hits us straight on,
we’ll get through it still standing as a family, strong!
– Kimberly Williams

20. Hold On

On the beaches of our lives,
We must dodge the fire
That our struggles comprise.
Never allow yourselves to tire
Or else we’ll be blown to bits
By the shrapnel that drives
Into every soul’s dark precipice.
No! You must carry on!
Before all around us
Lay dying and gasping,
Our will to live almost gone.
– Marla

21. Why

Why do you keep going on like everything’s okay?
Treating me the way you do like it’s a normal day.
I am confused of who you are, and who I am to you,
I’m scared that you will never know who I have grown into.
I can’t explain the reasons why you hate me now and then,
And why you’ve never let me live my life as just your friend.
The chances are forbidden that I ever could be right,
‘Cause I’m always wrong in your eyes, you change like day & night.
And when you say those evil lies, my heart would start to melt,
It hurts that you have never cared or listened to how I felt.
I wish that dad could just come home and make it all okay,
But since he can’t, it should be you, but you are not that way.
I love you mom, I always have, but I cannot pretend,
That you haven’t scarred my soul from a pain I cannot mend.
But throughout all this chaos I have learned a valuable lesson,
That even if you know you’re wrong, you’ll never give confession.
So now I have a dream that I will have kids of my own,
Just so I can show them a love that you have never shown.
Instead you showed me hate that I know I cannot forget,
So I will show my kids a love that I will not regret.
– LaRay A. Silz

22. Survival

Trying hard to be grateful
Thankful for being alive
But how can I love the life I’ve been given
When it’s so hard to just survive?
– Amanda

Poems about hard times are very uniquely structured to relate to our struggles and individual battles. These poems ideally are meant to give a sense of relief and consolation. It is important that you share these poems with friends and family members going through hard times.

Daily Time Poems.