1. Willow Poem - written by William Carlos Williams
Read 5846 times on American Poems.

It is a willow when summer is over,
a willow by the river
from which no leaf has fallen nor
bitten by the sun
turned orange or crimson.
The leaves cling and grow paler,
swing and grow paler
over the swirling waters of the river
as if loth to let... (Read full poem)

BROTHER, I am fire
Surging under the ocean floor.
I shall never meet you, brother--
Not for years, anyhow;
Maybe thousands of years, brother.
Then I will warm you,
Hold you close, wrap you in circles,
Use you and change you--
Maybe thousands of... (Read full poem)

3. Brother of Ingots -- Ah Peru -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1654 times on American Poems.

Brother of Ingots -- Ah Peru --
Empty the Hearts that purchased you --

--

Sister of Ophir --
Ah, Peru --
Subtle the Sum
That purchase you --

--

Brother of Ophir
Bright Adieu,
Honor, the shortest route
To you.(Read full poem)

You came to me bearing bright roses,
Red like the wine of your heart;
You twisted them into a garland
To set me aside from the mart.
Red roses to crown me your lover,
And I walked aureoled and apart.
Enslaved and encircled, I bore it,
Proud... (Read full poem)

5. The Well - written by Denise Levertov
Read 661 times on American Poems.

At sixteen I believed the moonlight 
could change me if it would.
          I moved my head
on the pillow, even moved my bed
as the moon slowly
crossed the open lattice.

I wanted beauty, a dangerous
gleam of steel, my body thinner,
my pale... (Read full poem)

It's August and I have not 
Read a book in six months 
except something called The Retreat from Moscow
by Caulaincourt 
Nevertheless, I am happy 
Riding in a car with my brother 
and drinking from a pint of Old Crow. 
We do not have any place in... (Read full poem)

7. My Portion is Defeat -- today -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2039 times on American Poems.

My Portion is Defeat -- today --
A paler luck than Victory --
Less Paeans -- fewer Bells --
The Drums don't follow Me -- with tunes --
Defeat -- a somewhat slower -- means --
More Arduous than Balls --

'Tis populous with Bone and stain --
And Men... (Read full poem)

"What says the sea, little shell?
What says the sea?
Long has our brother been silent to us,
Kept his message for the ships,
Awkward ships, stupid ships."

"The sea bids you mourn, O Pines,
Sing low in the moonlight.
He sends tale of the... (Read full poem)

9. What Work Is - written by Philip Levine
Read 3577 times on American Poems.

We stand in the rain in a long line
waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work.
You know what work is--if you're
old enough to read this you know what
work is, although you may not do it.
Forget you. This is about waiting,
shifting from one foot to... (Read full poem)

Down on the cathedrals, as from the Giralda
in a land no crueller, and over the walls
to domes & river look
from Great John's belfry, Ivan-Veliky,
whose thirty-one are still
to hail who storms no father's throne. Bell, book

& cradle rule,... (Read full poem)

11. Cotton Song - written by Jean Toomer
Read 1778 times on American Poems.

Come, brother, come. Lets lift it;
come now, hewit! roll away!
Shackles fall upon the Judgment Day
But lets not wait for it. 

God's body's got a soul,
Bodies like to roll the soul,
Cant blame God if we dont roll,
Come, brother, roll,... (Read full poem)

One day we notice that the sun
needs feeding. Immediately
a crash program begins: we fill rockets
with wheat, smoke-rings, razorblades, then, 
after long aiming
--they're off. Hulls specially alloyed
so as not to melt before the stuff 
gets... (Read full poem)

13. Suzanne - written by William Carlos Williams
From The Clouds. Published in 1948. Read 2932 times on American Poems.

Brother Paul! look!
—but he rushes to a different
window.
The moon!

I heard shrieks and thought:
What's that?

That's just Suzanne
talking to the moon!
Pounding on the window
with both fists:

     Paul!     Paul!

—and talking to the... (Read full poem)

Seven years ago I went into 
the High Sierras stunned by the desire 
to die. For hours I stared into a clear 
mountain stream that fell down 
over speckled rocks, and then I 
closed my eyes and prayed that when 
I opened them I would be gone 
and... (Read full poem)

15. To You. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 5586 times on American Poems.

LET us twain walk aside from the rest; 
Now we are together privately, do you discard ceremony, 
Come! vouchsafe to me what has yet been vouchsafed to none—Tell me the whole story, 
Tell me what you would not tell your brother, wife, husband,... (Read full poem)

All in green went my love riding
on a great horse of gold
into the silver dawn. 

four lean hounds crouched low and smiling
the merry deer ran before. 

Fleeter be they than dappled dreams
the swift sweet deer
the red rare deer. 

Four red roebuck... (Read full poem)

17. Wild Grapes - written by Robert Frost
From New Hampshire. Published in 1923. Read 7526 times on American Poems.

What tree may not the fig be gathered from? 	 
The grape may not be gathered from the birch?
It's all you know the grape, or know the birch.
As a girl gathered from the birch myself
Equally with my weight in grapes, one autumn,
I ought to know... (Read full poem)

THINK of the Soul; 
I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions to your Soul somehow to live in other
	spheres; 
I do not know how, but I know it is so. 
  
Think of loving and being loved; 
I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse... (Read full poem)

19. You Can Have It - written by Philip Levine
Read 4720 times on American Poems.

My brother comes home from work 
and climbs the stairs to our room. 
I can hear the bed groan and his shoes drop 
one by one. You can have it, he says. 

The moonlight streams in the window 
and his unshaven face is whitened 
like the face of the... (Read full poem)

1
        
The children of the Czar
Played with a bouncing ball

In the May morning, in the Czar's garden,
Tossing it back and forth.

It fell among the flowerbeds
Or fled to the north gate.

A daylight moon hung up
In the Western sky, bald... (Read full poem)

21. On the Mystery of the Incarnation - written by Denise Levertov
Read 871 times on American Poems.

It's when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature... (Read full poem)

I stood upon a high place,
And saw, below, many devils
Running, leaping,
and carousing in sin.
One looked up, grinning,
And said, "Comrade! Brother!"(Read full poem)

23. A Tall Man - written by Carl Sandburg
From Cornhuskers. Published in 1918. Read 1781 times on American Poems.

THE MOUTH of this man is a gaunt strong mouth.
The head of this man is a gaunt strong head.
 
The jaws of this man are bone of the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachians.
The eyes of this man are chlorine of two sobbing oceans,
Foam, salt, green, wind,... (Read full poem)

Having begun in thought there
in that factual embodied wonder
what was lost in the emptied lovers
patience and mind I first felt there
wondered again and again what for
myself so meager and finally singular
despite all issued therefrom... (Read full poem)

25. Among the Multitude. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 3022 times on American Poems.

AMONG the men and women, the multitude, 
I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs, 
Acknowledging none else—not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I
    am; 
Some are baffled—But that one is... (Read full poem)