Quotation by

John Ciardi

Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope.

Dad

Understanding this quote AI Analysis

John Ciardi means that every father experiences a moment when their child has gone away or made mistakes, leaving the parent uncertain and waiting. In that situation, the father can only remain patient and ready, holding onto the possibility that the child will come back.

More by this author

All quotes by John Ciardi →

More quotes about Dad

See all →

To me I'm just a regular person going to the mall with friends, and now I'm in Forever 21 and I see this random group of girls staring at me and taking pictures. But now I usually have my dad, who is…

My sensei was a British karate champion named Brian Fitkin. He was my mentor and because I had a hard relationship with my dad, he became a father figure to me.

Everyone gets surprised because neither one of my parents play golf. Like I said in my speech, my aunt and uncle really love golf, and we visited them, and she gave me two clubs. Like people think wh…

I have mostly been terrified of listening to scary stories around a campfire. We camp a lot as a family, and at night my dad would try and tell us scary stories. This made eating s'mores difficult. T…

You know that family is going to be there for you no matter what. My dad gave me a freakin' kidney!

I lost my mother, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and we had to relocate my dad after 58 years in the family home. That was tough.