1. Baby Vamps - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 2847 times on American Poems.

BABY vamps, is it harder work than it used to be?
Are the new soda parlors worse than the old time saloons?
  Baby vamps, do you have jobs in the day time or is this all you do? do you come out only at night?
In the winter at the skating rinks, in... (Read full poem)

A women had given birth to an old man.

  He cried to have again been caught in the pattern.

  Oh well, he sighed as he took her breast to his mouth.

  The woman is happy to have her baby, even if it is old.

  Probably it got mislaid in the baby... (Read full poem)

3. 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)

I sing a song
of the croissant
and of the wily French
who trick themselves daily
back to the world
for its sweet ceremony.
Ah to be reeled
up into morning
on that crisp,
buttery
hook.(Read full poem)

5. The Crying Room - written by Lee Upton
Read 540 times on American Poems.

The church had a crying room—
up at the opposite side of the altar.
Good for the baby.
It was glass on all sides like a tank.
A microphone brought in the priest’s voice.
From the crying room we could see
how things happened backstage:
someone... (Read full poem)

My new Web site is dropdead.com
It's interactive you get to choose how
you'll die, where, and at what age
and it'll still come as a complete
surprise to you I guarantee
but let's not get morbid it's a game
it's more fun than bullshit.com and a lot... (Read full poem)

7. Little Brown Baby - written by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Read 2621 times on American Poems.

Little brown baby wif spa'klin' eyes, 
Come to yo' pappy an' set on his knee.
What you been doin', suh -- makin' san' pies?
Look at dat bib -- you's es du'ty ez me.
Look at dat mouf -- dat's merlasses, I bet;
Come hyeah, Maria, an'... (Read full poem)

WHAT does the hangman think about
When he goes home at night from work?
When he sits down with his wife and
Children for a cup of coffee and a
Plate of ham and eggs, do they ask
Him if it was a good day’s work
And everything went well or do... (Read full poem)

9. Hey Baby - written by Maggie Estep
Read 2262 times on American Poems.

Liner Notes - (from No More Mister Nice Girl)

I was having a foul day. Some
geezer harrassed me on the street and I got completely bent out of shape,
but the guy was huge so I just stuffed my retort. Went home to drink
coffee. No milk. I... (Read full poem)

If God has been good enough to give you a poet
Then listen to him. But for God's sake let him alone until he is dead; 
no prizes, no ceremony,
They kill the man. A poet is one who listens
To nature and his own heart; and if the noise of the world... (Read full poem)

11. Baby Face - written by Carl Sandburg
From Cornhuskers. Published in 1918. Read 3208 times on American Poems.

WHITE MOON comes in on a baby face.
The shafts across her bed are flimmering.
 
Out on the land White Moon shines,
Shines and glimmers against gnarled shadows,
All silver to slow twisted shadows
Falling across the long road that runs from the... (Read full poem)

Come touch me baby in his waking dream
disordered Henry murmured. I'll read you Hegel
and that will hurt your mind
I can't remember when you were unkind
but I will clear that block, I'll set you on fire
along with our babies

to save them... (Read full poem)

13. The Forsaken - written by Amy Lowell
From Sword Blades & Poppy Seed. Read 2636 times on American Poems.

Holy Mother of God, Merciful Mary.  Hear 
me!  I am very weary.  I have come
from a village miles away, all day I have been coming, and I ache 
for such
far roaming.  I cannot walk as light as I used, and my 
thoughts grow confused.
I am... (Read full poem)

I'm tired of murdering children.
Once, long ago today, they wanted to live;
now I feel Vietnam the place
where rigor mortis is beginning to set-in upon me.

I force silence down the throats of mutes,
down the throats of mating-cries of animals who... (Read full poem)

15. A Baby In The House - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 2615 times on American Poems.

I knew that a baby was hid in that house,
Though I saw no cradle and heard no cry;
But the husband was tip-toeing 'round like a mouse,
And the good wife was humming a soft lullaby;
And there was a look on the face of the mother,
That I knew... (Read full poem)

I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn't a-been so cold
I might've sunk and died.

     But it was... (Read full poem)

17. Come On In, The Senility Is Fine - written by Ogden Nash
Read 4489 times on American Poems.

People live forever in Jacksonville and St. Petersburg and Tampa,
But you don't have to live forever to become a grampa.
The entrance requirements for grampahood are comparatively mild,
You only have to live until your child has a child.
From that... (Read full poem)

Through portico of my elegant house you stalk
With your wild furies, disturbing garlands of fruit
And the fabulous lutes and peacocks, rending the net
Of all decorum which holds the whirlwind back.
Now, rich order of walls is fallen; rooks... (Read full poem)

19. Blue Island Intersection - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 2019 times on American Poems.

SIX street ends come together here.
They feed people and wagons into the center.
In and out all day horses with thoughts of nose-bags,
Men with shovels, women with baskets and baby buggies.
Six ends of streets and no sleep for them all day.
The... (Read full poem)

THE BABY moon, a canoe, a silver papoose canoe, sails and sails in the Indian west.
A ring of silver foxes, a mist of silver foxes, sit and sit around the Indian moon.
One yellow star for a runner, and rows of blue stars for more runners, keep a... (Read full poem)

21. The Wife of the Mind - written by Charles Webb
Read 314 times on American Poems.

Sharecroppers' child, she was more schooled
In slaughtering pigs and coaxing corn out of
The ground than in the laws of Math, the rules
Of Grammar. Seventeen, she fell in love
With the senior quarterback, and nearly
Married him, but—the... (Read full poem)

Our mascot lives low, a baby alligator.
She's our happy-and-sad mask all at once,
Mona Lisa her name. She's my ideal,
her wrap-around grin both a smile and snarl.(Read full poem)

23. Stepping Backward - written by Adrienne Rich
Read 6512 times on American Poems.

Good-by to you whom I shall see tomorrow,
Next year and when I'm fifty; still good-by.
This is the leave we never really take.
If you were dead or gone to live in China
The event might draw your stature in my mind.
I should be forced to look... (Read full poem)

A wind's word, the Hebrew Hallelujah.
I wonder they never gave it to a boy
(Hal for short) boy with wind-wild hair.
It means Praise God, as well it should since praise
Is what God's for. Why didn't they call my father
Hallelujah instead of... (Read full poem)

25. A Penitent Considers Another Coming Of Mary - written by Gwendolyn Brooks
Read 3275 times on American Poems.

For Reverend Theodore Richardson
 

If Mary came would Mary 
Forgive, as Mothers may, 
And sad and second Saviour 
Furnish us today? 

She would not shake her head and leave 
This military air, 
But ratify a modern hay, 
And put her Baby there.... (Read full poem)