1. Guest am I to have - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1294 times on American Poems.

Guest am I to have
Light my northern room
Why to cordiality so averse to come
Other friends adjourn
Other bonds decay
Why avoid so narrowly
My fidelity --(Read full poem)

The Guest is gold and crimson --
An Opal guest and gray --
Of Ermine is his doublet --
His Capuchin gay --

He reaches town at nightfall --
He stops at every door --
Who looks for him at morning
I pray him too -- explore
The Lark's pure territory... (Read full poem)

3. He was my host -- he was my guest, - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1939 times on American Poems.

He was my host -- he was my guest,
I never to this day
If I invited him could tell,
Or he invited me.

So infinite our intercourse
So intimate, indeed,
Analysis as capsule seemed
To keeper of the seed.(Read full poem)

The Soul that hath a Guest
Doth seldom go abroad --
Diviner Crowd at Home --
Obliterate the need --

And Courtesy forbid
A Host's departure when
Upon Himself be visiting
The Emperor of Men --(Read full poem)

5. The Infinite a sudden Guest - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1380 times on American Poems.

The Infinite a sudden Guest
Has been assumed to be --
But how can that stupendous come
Which never went away?(Read full poem)

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)

7. Lyman King - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 1594 times on American Poems.

You may think, passer-by, that Fate
Is a pit-fall outside of yourself,
Around which you may walk by the use of foresight
And wisdom.
Thus you believe, viewing the lives of other men,
As one who in God-like fashion bends over an anthill,
Seeing... (Read full poem)

Only a Shrine, but Mine --
I made the Taper shine --
Madonna dim, to whom all Feet may come,
Regard a Nun --

Thou knowest every Woe --
Needless to tell thee -- so --
But can'st thou do
The Grace next to it -- heal?
That looks a harder skill to us... (Read full poem)

9. As Children bid the Guest "Good Night" - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 4065 times on American Poems.

As Children bid the Guest "Good Night"
And then reluctant turn --
My flowers raise their pretty lips --
Then put their nightgowns on.

As children caper when they wake
Merry that it is Morn --
My flowers from a hundred cribs
Will peep, and prance... (Read full poem)

My most Distinguished Guest and Learned Friend,
The pallid hare that runs before the day
Having brought your earnest counsels to an end
Now have I somewhat of my own to say:
That it is folly to be sunk in love,
And madness plain to make the matter... (Read full poem)

11. On the Ruins of a Country Inn - written by Philip Freneau
From An American Anthology: 1787-1900. Published in 1900. Read 2035 times on American Poems.

WHERE now these mingled ruins lie 
A temple once to Bacchus rose, 
Beneath whose roof, aspiring high, 
Full many a guest forgot his woes. 
  
No more this dome, by tempests torn, 
Affords a social safe retreat; 
But ravens here, with eye... (Read full poem)

Think not that incense-smoke has had its day. 
My friends, the incense-time has but begun. 
Creed upon creed, cult upon cult shall bloom, 
Shrine after shrine grow gray beneath the sun. 

And mountain-boulders in our aged West 
Shall guard the... (Read full poem)

13. 136 Syllables At Rocky Mountain Dharma Center - written by Allen Ginsberg
From White Shroud. Published in 1983. Read 3183 times on American Poems.

Tail turned to red sunset on a juniper crown a lone magpie cawks.

Mad at Oryoki in the shrine-room -- Thistles blossomed late afternoon.

Put on my shirt and took it off in the sun walking the path to lunch.

A dandelion seed floats above the marsh... (Read full poem)

Ah yes, I love you, and with all my heart; 
Just as a weaker woman loves her own, 
Better than I love my beloved art, 
Which, until you came, reigned royally, alone, 
My king, my master. Since I saw your face
I have dethroned it, and you hold... (Read full poem)

15. Mr. Brain - written by Russell Edson
Read 1102 times on American Poems.

Mr Brain was a hermit dwarf who liked to eat shellfish off 
the moon. He liked to go into a tree then because there is a 
little height to see a little further, which may reveal now the 
stone, a pebble--it is a twig, it is nothing under the moon... (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)

17. The Pilot - written by Russell Edson
Read 982 times on American Poems.

Up in a dirty window in a dark room is a star 
which an old man can see. He looks at it. He can 
see it. It is the star of the room; an electrical 
freckle that has fallen out of his head and gotten 
stuck in the dirt on the window.

  He thinks he... (Read full poem)

Bohemia, o'er thy unatlassed borders 
How many cross, with half-reluctant feet, 
And unformed fears of dangers and disorders, 
To find delights, more wholesome and more sweet 
Than ever yet were known to the "elite."

Herein can dwell no... (Read full poem)

19. Elysium is as far as to - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 3155 times on American Poems.

Elysium is as far as to
The very nearest Room
If in that Room a Friend await
Felicity or Doom --

What fortitude the Soul contains,
That it can so endure
The accent of a coming Foot --
The opening of a Door --(Read full poem)

This dirty -- little -- Heart
Is freely mine.
I won it with a Bun --
A Freckled shrine --

But eligibly fair
To him who sees
The Visage of the Soul
And not the knees.(Read full poem)

21. At Midnight - written by Sara Teasdale
Read 2953 times on American Poems.

Now at last I have come to see what life is,
Nothing is ever ended, everything only begun,
And the brave victories that seem so splendid
Are never really won.

Even love that I built my spirit's house for,
Comes like a brooding and a baffled... (Read full poem)

A Diamond on the Hand
To Custom Common grown
Subsides from its significance
The Gem were best unknown --
Within a Seller's Shrine
How many sight and sigh
And cannot, but are mad for fear
That any other buy.(Read full poem)

23. Messy Room - written by Shel Silverstein
From A Light in the Attic. Published in 1981. Read 397558 times on American Poems.

Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on... (Read full poem)

The lad I was I longer now 
Nor am nor shall be evermore. 
Spring's lovely blossoms from my brow 
Have shed their petals on the floor. 
Thou, Love, hast been my lord, thy shrine 
Above all gods' best served by me. 
Dear Love, could life... (Read full poem)

25. Creation - written by Kenneth Patchen
Read 2010 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)