1. Ghazal of the Better-Unbegun - written by Heather McHugh
Read 289 times on American Poems.

Too volatile, am I?too voluble?too much a word-person?
I blame the soup:I'm a primordially
stirred person.

Two pronouns and a vehicle was Icarus with wings.
The apparatus of his selves made an ab-
surd person.

The sound I make is... (Read full poem)

A Counterfeit -- a Plated Person --
I would not be --
Whatever strata of Iniquity
My Nature underlie --
Truth is good Health -- and Safety, and the Sky.
How meagre, what an Exile -- is a Lie,
And Vocal -- when we die --(Read full poem)

3. Creation - written by Kenneth Patchen
Read 2008 times on American Poems.

Wherever the dead are there they are and
Nothing more. But you and I can expect
To see angels in the meadowgrass that look
Like cows -
And wherever we are in paradise
in furnished room without bath and
six flights up
Is all God! We read
To... (Read full poem)

ARE you the new person drawn toward me? 
To begin with, take warning—I am surely far different from what you suppose; 
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal? 
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover? 
Do you think the... (Read full poem)

5. Behavior. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 3603 times on American Poems.

BEHAVIOR—fresh, native, copious, each one for himself or herself, 
Nature and the Soul expressed—America and freedom expressed—In it the finest
    art, 
In it pride, cleanliness, sympathy, to have their chance, 
In it physique,... (Read full poem)

The Wind is ghosting around the house tonight
and as I lean against the door of sleep
I begin to think about the first person to dream,
how quiet he must have seemed the next morning

as the others stood around the fire
draped in the skins of... (Read full poem)

7. Something For The Trade - written by Hayden Carruth
Read 797 times on American Poems.

Please note well, all you writers, editors, directors
out there: when a phone call is terminated
by the other person you do not, NOT, hear
the buzz of a dial tone. You hear a faint click
and then silence, absolute silence, the Great
Silence,... (Read full poem)

I became a criminal when I fell in love.
Before that I was a waitress.

I didn't want to go to Chicago with you.
I wanted to marry you, I wanted
Your wife to suffer.

I wanted her life to be like a play
In which all the parts are sad... (Read full poem)

9. Ancient Measures - written by Bill Knott
Read 577 times on American Poems.

As much as someone could plow in one day
They called an acre;
As much as a person could die in one instant
A lifetime--(Read full poem)

Watch out for power,
for its avalanche can bury you,
snow, snow, snow, smothering your mountain.

Watch out for hate,
it can open its mouth and you'll fling yourself out
to eat off your leg, an instant leper.

Watch out for friends,
because when you... (Read full poem)

11. Admonitions to a Special Person - written by Anne Sexton
Read 4367 times on American Poems.

Watch out for power, 
for its avalanche can bury you, 
snow, snow, snow, smothering your mountain. 

Watch out for hate, 
it can open its mouth and you’ll fling yourself out 
to eat off your leg, an instant leper. 

Watch out for friends, 
because... (Read full poem)

If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug... (Read full poem)

13. Cosmopolitan Greetings - written by Allen Ginsberg
From Cosmopolitan Greetings. Published in 1986. Read 5779 times on American Poems.

To Struga Festival Golden Wreath Laureates
        & International Bards 1986

Stand up against governments, against God.

Stay irresponsible.

Say only what we know & imagine.

Absolutes are coercion.

Change is absolute.

Ordinary mind... (Read full poem)

1
I SAY whatever tastes sweet to the most perfect person, that is finally right. 
2
I say nourish a great intellect, a great brain; 
If I have said anything to the contrary, I hereby retract it. 
  
3
I say man shall not hold property in man; 
I say... (Read full poem)

15. Biography In The First Person - written by Stephen Dunn
From Stephen Dunn -- New and Selected Poems 1974 - 1994. Read 1654 times on American Poems.

This is not the way I am.
Really, I am much taller in person,
the hairline I conceal reaches back
to my grandfather, and the shyness my wife
will not believe in has always been why
I was bold on first dates. My father a crack salesman.
I've saved... (Read full poem)

I'm a very average person,
and I think most people are.
I vote with the common man.
I have two kids, a boy and a girl.
Last Sunday I played golf with the boss.
Hey, it beats working.
I'm his wife. I may be brainless but
I'm her husband. I played... (Read full poem)

17. (will you teach a... (12) - written by e.e. cummings
Read 23669 times on American Poems.

(will you teach a
wretch to live
straighter than a needle)

ask
    her
        ask
            when
                (ask and
                ask
                and ask
again and)ask a
brittle little
person fiddling
in
the
rain

(did you kiss
a... (Read full poem)

I lost my patronage in Spoon River
From trying to put my mind in the camera
To catch the soul of the person.
The very best picture I ever took
Was of Judge Somers, attorney at law.
He sat upright and had me pause
Till he got his cross-eye... (Read full poem)

19. Lines For The Fortune Cookies - written by Frank O\'Hara
Read 2700 times on American Poems.

I think you're wonderful and so does everyone else.

Just as Jackie Kennedy has a baby boy, so will you--even bigger.

You will meet a tall beautiful blonde stranger, and you will not say hello.

You will take a long trip and you will be very happy,... (Read full poem)

What did They do since I saw Them?
Were They industrious?
So many questions to put Them
Have I the eagerness

That could I snatch Their Faces
That could Their lips reply
Not till the last was answered
Should They start for the Sky.

Not if Their... (Read full poem)

21. Men - written by Dorothy Parker
From Enough Rope. Published in 1926. Read 9368 times on American Poems.

They hail you as their morning star
Because you are the way you are.
If you return the sentiment,
They'll try to make you different;
And once they have you, safe and sound,
They want to change you all around.
Your moods and ways they put a curse... (Read full poem)

SOMETIMES with one I love, I fill myself with rage, for fear I effuse unreturn’d love; 
But now I think there is no unreturn’d love—the pay is certain, one way or another; 
(I loved a certain person ardently, and my love was not return’d; 
Yet... (Read full poem)

23. Talking to Grief - written by Denise Levertov
Read 2603 times on American Poems.

Ah, Grief, I should not treat you
like a homeless dog
who comes to the back door
for a crust, for a meatless bone.
I should trust you.

I should coax you
into the house and give you
your own corner,
a worn mat to lie on,
your own water... (Read full poem)

What is -- "Paradise" --
Who live there --
Are they "Farmers" --
Do they "hoe" --
Do they know that this is "Amherst" --
And that I -- am coming -- too --

Do they wear "new shoes" -- in "Eden" --
Is it always pleasant -- there --
Won't they scold... (Read full poem)

25. Etymological Dirge - written by Heather McHugh
Read 397 times on American Poems.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear.

Calm comes from burning.
Tall comes from fast.
Comely doesn't come from come.
Person comes from mask.

The kin of charity is whore,
the root of charity is dear.
Incentive has its source in song
and winning... (Read full poem)