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. The Author Of The Jesus Papers Speaks - written by Anne Sexton
Read 4827 times on American Poems.

In my dream
I milked a cow,
the terrible udder
like a great rubber lily
sweated in my fingers
and as I yanked,
waiting for the moon juice,
waiting for the white mother,
blood spurted from it
and covered me with shame.
Then God spoke to me and... (Read full poem)

THIS section is a Christmas tree: 
Loaded with pretty toys for you. 
Behold the blocks, the Noah's arks, 
The popguns painted red and blue. 
No solemn pine-cone forest-fruit, 
But silver horns and candy sacks 
And many little tinsel hearts 
And... (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)

When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow, 
We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago.
And etched on vacant places, 
Are half forgotten faces
Of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know –
When Christmas... (Read full poem)

7. Christmas Trees - written by Robert Frost
From Mountain Interval. Published in 1916. Read 15888 times on American Poems.

(A Christmas Circular Letter)


THE CITY had withdrawn into itself
And left at last the country to the country;
When between whirls of snow not come to lie
And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove
A stranger to our yard, who looked the... (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)

9. Christmas Eve - written by Anne Sexton
Read 6193 times on American Poems.

Oh sharp diamond, my mother! 
I could not count the cost 
of all your faces, your moods-- 
that present that I lost. 
Sweet girl, my deathbed, 
my jewel-fingered lady, 
your portrait flickered all night 
by the bulbs of the tree. 

Your face as calm... (Read full poem)

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)

11. The Hangman at Home - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 3171 times on American Poems.

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)

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)

13. Before the ice is in the pools - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 6246 times on American Poems.

Before the ice is in the pools --
Before the skaters go,
Or any check at nightfall
Is tarnished by the snow --

Before the fields have finished,
Before the Christmas tree,
Wonder upon wonder
Will arrive to me!

What we touch the hems of
On a... (Read full poem)

Well, eight months ago one clear cold day,
I took a ramble up Broadway,
And with my hands behind my back
I strolled along on the streetcar track—
(I walked on the track, for walking there
Gives one, I think, a distinguished air.)

“Well, all... (Read full poem)

15. As Sleigh Bells seem in summer - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1619 times on American Poems.

As Sleigh Bells seem in summer
Or Bees, at Christmas show --
So fairy -- so fictitious
The individuals do
Repealed from observation --
A Party that we knew --
More distant in an instant
Than Dawn in Timbuctoo.(Read full poem)

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)

17. Dream Song 131: Come touch me baby in his waking dream - written by John Berryman
From His Toy, His Dream, His Rest. Published in 1968. Read 977 times on American Poems.

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)

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The... (Read full poem)

19. The Ballade Of The Mistletoe Bough - written by Ellis Parker Butler
From American Magazine. Published in 1905. Read 526 times on American Poems.

I am standing under the mistletoe,
  And I smile, but no answering smile replies
For her haughty glance bids me plainly know
  That not for me is the thing I prize;
Instead, from her coldly scornful eyes,
  Indifference looks on my barefaced... (Read full poem)

Trudging to Eden, looking backward,
I met Somebody's little Boy
Asked him his name -- He lisped me "Trotwood" --
Lady, did He belong to thee?

Would it comfort -- to know I met him --
And that He didn't look afraid?
I couldn't weep -- for so many... (Read full poem)

21. 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)

23. Iowa & Other Accidents - written by Kate Northrop
From Back Through Interruption. Published in 2002. Read 271 times on American Poems.

There was snow that afternoon covering the road
which twisted toward the secret 
of water, the mysterious surge

of sludge & loam, the living
Mississippi, unlike the rest of the Midwest,

drawing itself through landscape. There was an... (Read full poem)

Sweetheart Spring

Our Sweetheart, Spring, came softly, 
Her gliding hands were fire, 
Her lilac breath upon our cheeks 
Consumed us with desire. 

By her our God began to build, 
Began to sow and till. 
He laid foundations in our loves... (Read full poem)

25. 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)