Life is a transformative journey, whether or not you welcome the changes along the way.
Nothing remains the same, and you shouldn’t want it to – even when change is painful or frightening.
Beautiful poetry about change reminds us that even as the seasons change and those we love become different or leave us behind, we evolve and grow into new versions of ourselves.
The poems about change and growth in our collection reveal how change is exhilarating and bittersweet.
As you read them, open your heart and mind, and embrace change as a welcome friend.
15 Exquisite Poems About Change That Will Transform You
We suggest you first read each poem to yourself and then read them out loud.
You’ll be surprised how profoundly they touch you as you hear the flow of words and absorb their meaning.
Not only are you reading poetry about changes in life – but also you’ll find these are life-changing poems that speak to the deepest parts of your psyche.
So give them the time they deserve and savor each one like a treasured gift.
1. There is a life-force within your soul, by Rumi
There is a life-force within your soul, seek that life.
There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that
mine.
O traveler, if you are in search of That
Don’t look outside, look inside yourself and seek That.
There is a life-force within your soul, seek that life.
There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that mine.
O traveler, if you are in search of That
Don’t look outside, look inside yourself and seek That.
2. Change, by Mary Love
Count me among
the weird, the odd, the unruly.
Stare if you must
then kindly step out of the way.
I am here to change the world
and I have a lot to do.
3. When I Rise Up, by Georgia Douglas Johnson
When I rise up above the earth,
And look down on the things that fetter me,
I beat my wings upon the air,
Or tranquil lie,
Surge after surge of potent strength
Like incense comes to me
When I rise up above the earth
And look down upon the things that fetter me.
4. Wild Geese, by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
5. Change, by Wendy Videlock
Change is the new,
improved
word for god,
lovely enough
to raise a song
or implicate
a sea of wrongs,
mighty enough,
like other gods,
to shelter,
bring together,
and estrange us.
Please, god,
we seem to say,
change us.
6. For A New Beginning, by John O’Donahue
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
7. Love’s Change, by Robert Bridges
So sweet love seemed that April morn.
When first we kissed beside the thorn,
So strangely sweet, it was not strange
We thought that love could never change.
But I can tell — let truth be told —
That love will change in growing old;
Though day by day is naught to see,
So delicate his motions be.
And in the end ’twill come to pass
Quite to forget what once he was,
Nor even in fancy to recall
The pleasure that was all in all.
His little spring, that sweet we found.
So deep in summer floods is drowned,
I wonder, bathed in joy complete.
How love so young could be so sweet.
8. Change, by Kathleen Jessie Raine
Change
Said the sun to the moon,
You cannot stay.
Change
Says the moon to the waters,
All is flowing.
Change
Says the fields to the grass,
Seed-time and harvest,
Chaff and grain.
You must change said,
Said the worm to the bud,
Though not to a rose,
Petals fade
That wings may rise
Borne on the wind.
You are changing
said death to the maiden, your wan face
To memory, to beauty.
Are you ready to change?
Says the thought to the heart, to let her pass
All your life long
For the unknown, the unborn
In the alchemy
Of the world’s dream?
You will change,
says the stars to the sun,
Says the night to the stars.
9. The Song of the Potter, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Turn, turn, my wheel! Turn round and round,
Without a pause, without a sound:
So spins the flying world away!
This clay, well mixed with marl and sand,
Follows the motion of my hand;
For some must follow, and some command,
Though all are made of clay!
Turn, turn, my wheel! All things must change
To something new, to something strange;
Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
To-morrow be to-day.
10. The Struggle, by Edgar A. Guest
Life is a struggle for peace,
A longing for rest,
A hope for the battles to cease,
A dream for the best;
And he is not living who stays
Contented with things,
Unconcerned with the work of the days
And all that it brings.
He is dead who sees nothing to change,
No wrong to make right;
Who travels no new way or strange
In search of the light;
Who never sets out for a goal
That he sees from afar
But contents his indifferent soul
With things as they are.
Life isn’t rest — it is toil;
It is building a dream;
It is tilling a parcel of soil
Or bridging a stream;
It’s pursuing the light of a star
That but dimly we see,
And in wresting from things as they are
The joy that should be.
11. Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII, by Rainer Maria Rilke
Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.
What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.
Pour yourself out like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.
Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming
a laurel,
dares you to become the wind.
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12. Before I, by Insiya K. Patanwala
Before I became strong, I knew what it was like
To be weak,
How difficult it is to love yourself,
To find the wholeness that you seek.
Before I knew the light,
I have had my fair share of darkness, too,
Where my world fell into a hopelessness
And I didn’t know how to get through.
For I have known the tears it takes,
The courage to stand up again,
When you are broken down and bruised
And you know nothing but the pain.
You forget to appreciate love,
If you haven’t seen the hate,
Till you forget the meaning of smile and laughter,
And your heart is left abate.
I have known the strength and courage
It requires to get it right,
To face the things that hold you down
And hold your head up and fight.
Before I was who I am now,
I was someone I didn’t want to be.
I was lost, battered, and defeated,
Before I knew how to be me!
13. A Little Bird Am I, by Hanna Heath
I ask but this one small thing.
Give me the worldly skies
For I cannot stay trapped here
A little bird am I….
Let me leave this here land.
Don’t keep me in a cage.
Let me fly to the highest heights.
Let me come of age.
Let me soar among the clouds.
Let my wings spread into flight.
I need to be free; I need to see
The world without a fright.
I have spent my life so grounded,
But my instincts pull me up.
They tell me to go, to see the new,
To finger each buttercup.
I need to witness greatness,
need the sorrow of poverty.
I need to show the world my wings
And shed this gravity.
I want a life of freedom,
And I want to know what’s real.
I want to step to the edge of earth
And watch the sea reveal.
I want to take the longest ride,
And I want to feel the wind
I want to share this life with you,
So, forgive me, for I have sinned.
For I know I’m leaving you behind
To shadow in my wake,
But I cannot stay in these four walls
Simply for your sake.
I will keep you in my mirror.
With me you’ll always be.
I will share with you my tales,
And I will return to thee.
So I ask but this one small thing
Give me the worldly skies
For I cannot stay trapped here
A little bird am I….
14. Proverbios y Cantares XXIX, by Antonio Machado
Wayfarer, the only way
is your footsteps, there is no other.
Wayfarer, there is no way,
you make the way by walking.
As you go, you make the way
and stopping to look behind,
you see the path that your feet
will never travel again.
Wayfarer, there is no way –
Only foam trails to the sea.
15. The Change Has Come, by Paul Laurence Dunbar
The change has come, and Helen sleeps–
Not sleeps; but wakes to greater deeps
Of wisdom, glory, truth, and light,
Than ever blessed her seeking sight,
In this low, long, lethargic night,
Worn out with strife
Which men call life.
The change has come, and who would say
“I would it were not come to-day”?
What were the respite till to-morrow?
Postponement of a certain sorrow,
From which each passing day would borrow!
Let grief be dumb,
The change has come.
What changes are you experiencing in your life right now? Or how is life presenting you with a moment for transformation and growth?
Hopefully, you found a change poem in our curation that speaks to your experiences and emotions.
