1. Life Is Fine - written by Langston Hughes
Read 121587 times on American Poems.

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)

When I died, love, when I died
my heart was broken in your care;
I never suffered love so fair
as now I suffer and abide
when I died, love, when I died.

When I died, love, when I died
I wearied in an endless maze
that men have walked for... (Read full poem)

3. 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)

5. She died -- this was the way she died. - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 8550 times on American Poems.

She died -- this was the way she died.
And when her breath was done
Took up her simple wardrobe
And started for the sun.

Her little figure at the gate
The Angels must have spied,
Since I could never find her
Upon the mortal side.(Read full poem)

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)

7. August 15 - written by David Lehman
Read 975 times on American Poems.

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)

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)

9. 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)

It was not dying: everybody died. 
It was not dying: we had died before 
In the routine crashes-- and our fields 
Called up the papers, wrote home to our folks, 
And the rates rose, all because of us. 
We died on the wrong page of the almanac,... (Read full poem)

11. 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)

1. DREAMS

I was an ice baby.
I turned to sky blue.
My tears became two glass beads.
My mouth stiffened into a dumb howl.
They say it was a dream
but I remember that hardening.

My sister at six
dreamt nightly of my death:
"The baby turned to... (Read full poem)

13. Margaret Fuller Slack - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 781 times on American Poems.

I would have been as great as George Eliot
But for an untoward fate.
For look at the photograph of me made by Penniwit,
Chin resting on hand, and deep-set eyes --
Gray, too, and far-searching.
But there was the old, old problem:
Should it be... (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)

15. I died for Beauty -- but was scarce - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 13847 times on American Poems.

I died for Beauty -- but was scarce
Adjusted in the Tomb
When One who died for Truth, was lain
In an adjoining room --

He questioned softly "Why I failed"?
"For Beauty", I replied --
"And I -- for Truth -- Themself are One --
We Brethren, are", He... (Read full poem)

A Death blow is a Life blow to Some
Who till they died, did not alive become --
Who had they lived, had died but when
They died, Vitality begun.(Read full poem)

17. Epitaph of a Young Poet Who Died Before Having Achieved Success - written by Amy Lowell
From Sword Blades & Poppy Seed. Read 2080 times on American Poems.

Beneath this sod lie the remains
Of one who died of growing pains.(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)

19. That Such have died enable Us - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2716 times on American Poems.

That Such have died enable Us
The tranquiller to die --
That Such have lived,
Certificate for Immortality.(Read full poem)

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)

21. (End) of Summer (1966) - written by Bill Knott
Read 1285 times on American Poems.

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)

JACK was a swarthy, swaggering son-of-a-gun.
He worked thirty years on the railroad, ten hours a day,
and his hands were tougher than sole leather.
He married a tough woman and they had eight children
and the woman died and the children grew up... (Read full poem)

23. Midsummer, was it, when They died -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1502 times on American Poems.

Midsummer, was it, when They died --
A full, and perfect time --
The Summer closed upon itself
In Consummated Bloom --

The Corn, her furthest kernel filled
Before the coming Flail --
When These -- leaned unto Perfectness --
Through Haze of Burial --(Read full poem)

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)

25. She died at play, - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 10167 times on American Poems.

She died at play,
Gambolled away
Her lease of spotted hours,
Then sank as gaily as a Turn
Upon a Couch of flowers.

Her ghost strolled softly o'er the hill
Yesterday, and Today,
Her vestments as the silver fleece --
Her countenance as spray.(Read full poem)