1. Buffalo Bill - written by Carl Sandburg
From Cornhuskers. Published in 1918. Read 2158 times on American Poems.

BOY heart of Johnny Jones—aching to-day?
Aching, and Buffalo Bill in town?
Buffalo Bill and ponies, cowboys, Indians?
 
Some of us know
All about it, Johnny Jones.
 
Buffalo Bill is a slanting look of the eyes,
  A slanting look under a hat on... (Read full poem)

In his tenth July some instinct
taught him to arm the waiting wave,
a giant where its mouth hung open.
He rode on the lip that buoyed him there
and buckled him under. The beach was strung
with children paddling their ages in,
under the glare od noon... (Read full poem)

3. 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)

I have banked the fires
of my body
into a small but steady blaze
here in the kitchen
where the dough has a life of its own,
breathing under its damp cloth
like a sleeping child;
where the real child plays under the table,
pretending the tablecloth... (Read full poem)

5. Here I Am ... - written by Charles Bukowski
Read 4353 times on American Poems.

drunk again at 3 a.m. at the end of my 2nd bottle
of wine, I have typed from a dozen to 15 pages of
poesy
an old man
maddened for the flesh of young girls in this
dwindling twilight
liver gone
kidneys going
pancrea pooped
top-floor blood pressure... (Read full poem)

Wisteria, hysteria is as obvious a rhyme
as Viagra and Niagara there must be a reason
honeymooners traditionally went to the Falls
which were, said the divine Oscar,
an American bride's second biggest disappointment
tell me which do you like... (Read full poem)

7. Yes, the Dead Speak to Us - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 1672 times on American Poems.

YES, the Dead speak to us.
This town belongs to the Dead, to the Dead and to the Wilderness.
  
Back of the clamps on a fireproof door they hold the papers of the Dead in a house here
And when two living men fall out, when one says the Dead spoke a... (Read full poem)

You are so beautiful and I am a fool
to be in love with you
is a theme that keeps coming up
in songs and poems.
There seems to be no room for variation.
I have never heard anyone sing
I am so beautiful
and you are a fool to be in love with me,
even... (Read full poem)

9. A Boy Named Sue - written by Shel Silverstein
From sung by Johnny Cash. Published in 1969. Read 46586 times on American Poems.

Well, my daddy left home when I was three,
and he didn't leave much to Ma and me,
just this old guitar and a bottle of booze.
Now I don't blame him because he run and hid,
but the meanest thing that he ever did was
before he left he went and... (Read full poem)

Your daisies have come
on the day of my divorce:
the courtroom a cement box,
a gas chamber for the infectious Jew in me
and a perhaps land, a possibly promised land
for the Jew in me,
but still a betrayal room for the till-death-do-us—
and yet a... (Read full poem)

11. Bad Day At The Beauty Salon - written by Maggie Estep
Published in 1998. Read 1594 times on American Poems.

I was a 20 year old unemployed receptionist with
dyed orange dreadlocks sprouting out of my skull. I needed a job, but first,
I needed a haircut.

So I head for this beauty salon on Avenue B.
I'm gonna get a hairdo.
I'm gonna look just like those... (Read full poem)