The only response
to a child's grave is
to lie down before it and play dead(Read full poem)

2. Art thou the thing I wanted? - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1547 times on American Poems.

Art thou the thing I wanted?
Begone -- my Tooth has grown --
Supply the minor Palate
That has not starved so long --
I tell thee while I waited
The mystery of Food
Increased till I abjured it
And dine without Like God --

--

Art thou the thing I... (Read full poem)

One and One -- are One --
Two -- be finished using --
Well enough for Schools --
But for Minor Choosing --

Life -- just -- or Death --
Or the Everlasting --
More -- would be too vast
For the Soul's Comprising --(Read full poem)

4. A Minor Bird - written by Robert Frost
From West-Running Brook. Published in 1928. Read 6242 times on American Poems.

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of... (Read full poem)

That first Day, when you praised Me, Sweet,
And said that I was strong --
And could be mighty, if I liked --
That Day -- the Days among --

Glows Central -- like a Jewel
Between Diverging Golds --
The Minor One -- that gleamed behind --
And Vaster... (Read full poem)

6. This Then - written by Charles Bukowski
Read 1428 times on American Poems.

it's the same as before
or the other time
or the time before that.
here's a cock
and here's a cunt
and here's trouble.

only each time
you think
well now I've learned:
I'll let her do that
and I'll do this,
I no longer want it all,
just some... (Read full poem)

Who Giants know, with lesser Men
Are incomplete, and shy --
For Greatness, that is ill at ease
In minor Company --

A Smaller, could not be perturbed --
The Summer Gnat displays --
Unconscious that his single Fleet
Do not comprise the skies --(Read full poem)

8. Why -- do they shut Me out of Heaven? - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 3948 times on American Poems.

Why -- do they shut Me out of Heaven?
Did I sing -- too loud?
But -- I can say a little "Minor"
Timid as a Bird!

Wouldn't the Angels try me --
Just -- once -- more --
Just -- see -- if I troubled them --
But don't -- shut the door!

Oh, if I --... (Read full poem)

Life, and Death, and Giants --
Such as These -- are still --
Minor -- Apparatus -- Hopper of the Mill --
Beetle at the Candle --
Or a Fife's Fame --
Maintain -- by Accident that they proclaim --(Read full poem)

10. The Missing All -- prevented Me - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 3111 times on American Poems.

The Missing All -- prevented Me
From missing minor Things.
If nothing larger than a World's
Departure from a Hinge --
Or Sun's extinction, be observed --
'Twas not so large that I
Could lift my Forehead from my work
For Curiosity.(Read full poem)

A World made penniless by that departure
Of minor fabrics begs
But sustenance is of the spirit
The Gods but Dregs(Read full poem)

12. Further in Summer than the Birds - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2199 times on American Poems.

Further in Summer than the Birds
Pathetic from the Grass
A minor Nation celebrates
Its unobtrusive Mass.

No Ordinance be seen
So gradual the Grace
A pensive Custom it becomes
Enlarging Loneliness.

Antiquest felt at Noon
When August burning... (Read full poem)

One Anguish -- in a Crowd --
A Minor thing -- it sounds --
And yet, unto the single Doe
Attempted of the Hounds

'Tis Terror as consummate
As Legions of Alarm
Did leap, full flanked, upon the Host --
'Tis Units -- make the Swarm --

A Small Leech --... (Read full poem)

14. Life's Harmonies - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 416 times on American Poems.

Let no man pray that he know not sorrow,
Let no soul ask to be free from pain,
For the gall of to-day is the sweet of to-morrow,
And the moment's loss is the lifetime's gain.

Through want of a thing does its worth redouble,
Through... (Read full poem)

He touched me, so I live to know
That such a day, permitted so,
I groped upon his breast --
It was a boundless place to me
And silenced, as the awful sea
Puts minor streams to rest.

And now, I'm different from before,
As if I breathed superior air... (Read full poem)

16. Bloom -- is Result -- to meet a Flower - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1722 times on American Poems.

Bloom -- is Result -- to meet a Flower
And casually glance
Would scarcely cause one to suspect
The minor Circumstance

Assisting in the Bright Affair
So intricately done
Then offered as a Butterfly
To the Meridian --

To pack the Bud -- oppose the... (Read full poem)

Each picture is heartbreakingly banal,
a kitten and a ball of yarn,
a dog and bone.
The paper is cheap, easily torn.
A coloring book's authority is derived
from its heavy black lines
as unalterable as the ten commandments
within which minor... (Read full poem)

18. Diagnosis - written by Terence Winch
From The Drift of Things. Published in 2001. Read 1042 times on American Poems.

for David Lehman

I woke up this morning feeling
incredibly Gorky. So I made an appointment
to see my Doctorow. He said my Hemingways
looked a little swollen and sent me to
get an M.R. James and a complete Shakespeare.
By that time, I began... (Read full poem)

My heart is tuned to sorrow, and the strings
Vibrate most readily to minor chords,
Searching and sad; my mind is stuffed with words
Which voice the passion and the ache of things:
Illusions beating with their baffled wings
Against the walls of... (Read full poem)

20. The List of Famous Hats - written by James Tate
From Reckoner. Published in 1986. Read 7637 times on American Poems.

Napoleon's hat is an obvious choice I guess to list as a famous
hat, but that's not the hat I have in mind. That was his hat for
show. I am thinking of his private bathing cap, which in all hon-
esty wasn't much different than the one any jerk... (Read full poem)

I. The Minor Poet

His little trills and chirpings were his best.
No music like the nightingale's was born
Within his throat;  but he, too, laid his breast
Upon a thorn.


II. The Pretty Lady

She hated bleak and wintry things alone.
All that was... (Read full poem)

22. Living In Sin - written by Adrienne Rich
Published in 1955. Read 29707 times on American Poems.

She had thought the studio would keep itself;
no dust upon the furniture of love.
Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal,
the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears,
a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat
stalking the picturesque amusing... (Read full poem)

A pianist dreams that he's hired by a wrecking company to 
ruin a piano with his fingers . . . 
  On the day of the piano wrecking concert, as he's 
dressing, he notices a butterfly annoying a flower in his window 
box. He wonders if the police... (Read full poem)

24. Another Day - written by Charles Bukowski
Read 2714 times on American Poems.

having the low down blues and going
into a restraunt to eat.
you sit at a table.
the waitress smiles at you.
she's dumpy. her ass is too big.
she radiates kindess and symphaty.
live with her 3 months and a man would no real agony.
o.k., you'll tip... (Read full poem)

Husbands are things that wives have to get used to putting up with.
And with whom they breakfast with and sup with.
They interfere with the discipline of nurseries,
And forget anniversaries,
And when they have been particularly remiss
They think... (Read full poem)