1. Look back on Time, with kindly eyes -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1615 times on American Poems.

Look back on Time, with kindly eyes --
He doubtless did his best --
How softly sinks that trembling sun
In Human Nature's West --(Read full poem)

Seen my lady home las' night, 
Jump back, honey, jump back.
Hel' huh han' an' sque'z it tight,
Jump back, honey, jump back.
Hyeahd huh sigh a little sigh,
Seen a light gleam f'om huh eye,
An' a smile go flittin' by --
Jump back,... (Read full poem)

3. The Retreat - written by Charles Bukowski
Read 1653 times on American Poems.

this time has finished me. 
I feel like the German troops
whipped by snow and the communists
walking bent
with newspapers stuffed into
worn boots. 
my plight is just as terrible.
maybe more so. 
victory was so close
victory was there. 
as she stood... (Read full poem)

I turn around on the gravel
and go back to the house for a book,
something to read at the doctor's office,
and while I am inside, running the finger
of inquisition along a shelf,
another me that did not bother
to go back to the house for a... (Read full poem)

5. The Admirations -- and Contempts -- of time -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1222 times on American Poems.

The Admirations -- and Contempts -- of time --
Show justest -- through an Open Tomb --
The Dying -- as it were a Height
Reorganizes Estimate
And what We saw not
We distinguish clear --
And mostly -- see not
What We saw before --

'Tis Compound... (Read full poem)

Less time than it takes to say it, less tears than it takes to die; I've taken account
of everything, there you have it. I've made a census of the stones, they are as numerous
as my fingers and some others; I've distributed some pamphelts to the... (Read full poem)

7. Paying The Captain - written by Russell Edson
Read 1653 times on American Poems.

We get on a boat, never mind if it sinks, we pay 
the captain by throwing him overboard. And when he 
gets back onboard we say, captain, please don't be 
angry. And he forgives us this time. And so we throw 
him overboard again just to make sure we... (Read full poem)

Remember that time you made the wish?

     I make a lot of wishes.

The time I lied to you
about the butterfly. I always wondered
what you wished for.

     What do you think I wished for?

I don't know. That I'd come back,
that we'd... (Read full poem)

9. A Fantasy - written by Louise Gluck
From Ararat. Published in 1990. Read 2072 times on American Poems.

I'll tell you something: every day
people are dying. And that's just the beginning.
Every day, in funeral homes, new widows are born,
new orphans. They sit with their hands folded,
trying to decide about this new life.

Then they're in the... (Read full poem)

The great man turns his back on the island.
Now he will not die in paradise
nor hear again
the lutes of paradise among the olive trees,
by the clear pools under the cypresses. Time

begins now, in which he hears again
that pulse which is the... (Read full poem)

11. Just lost, when I was saved! - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 3712 times on American Poems.

Just lost, when I was saved!
Just felt the world go by!
Just girt me for the onset with Eternity,
When breath blew back,
And on the other side
I heard recede the disappointed tide!

Therefore, as One returned, I feel
Odd secrets of the line to... (Read full poem)

One wants a teller in a time like this

One's not a man, one's not a woman grown
To bear enormous business all alone.

One cannot walk this winding street with pride
Straight-shouldered, tranquil-eyed,
Knowing one knows for sure the way back... (Read full poem)

13. Circulation - written by Raymond Carver
From Ultramarine. Published in 1986. Read 5608 times on American Poems.

And all at length are gathered in.
                            --LOUISE BOGAN

By the time I came around to feeling pain
and woke up, moonlight
flooded the room. My arm lay paralyzed,
propped up like an old anchor under
your back. You were in a... (Read full poem)

You said, that October,
In the tall dry grass by the orchard
When you chose to be free,
"Again someday, maybe ten years."

After college I saw you
One time.  You were strange,
And I was obsessed with a plan.

Now ten years and more have
Gone by:... (Read full poem)

15. On Turning Ten - written by Billy Collins
Read 6427 times on American Poems.

The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light--
a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the... (Read full poem)

Of all the waltzes the great Strauss wrote,
mad with melody, rhythm--rife
From the very first to the final note,
Give me his "Artist's Life!"

It stirs my blood to my finger ends,
Thrills me and fills me with vague unrest,
And all that is... (Read full poem)

17. Acquainted With the Night - written by Robert Frost
From West-Running Brook. Published in 1928. Read 31805 times on American Poems.

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain --and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to... (Read full poem)

in time of daffodils(who know
the goal of living is to grow)
forgetting why,remember how

in time of lilacs who proclaim
the aim of waking is to dream,
remember so(forgetting seem)

in time of roses(who amaze
our now and here with... (Read full poem)

19. When they come back -- if Blossoms do -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2537 times on American Poems.

When they come back -- if Blossoms do --
I always feel a doubt
If Blossoms can be born again
When once the Art is out --

When they begin, if Robins may,
I always had a fear
I did not tell, it was their last Experiment
Last Year,

When it is May, if... (Read full poem)

This is a place on the way after the distances
     can no longer be kept straight here in this dark corner
of the barn a mound of wheels has convened along
     raveling courses to stop in a single moment
and lie down as still as the chariots of... (Read full poem)

21. Stress Therapy - written by Bill Knott
Read 2672 times on American Poems.

Time, time, time, time, the clock
vaccinates us.
and then even that lacks
prophylaxis. 

Ticktock-pockmarked, stricken
by such strokes, we
get sick of prescriptions
which work solely 

on the body.
Systole diastole--
It is by its very... (Read full poem)

In the airport bar, I tell my mother not to worry.
No one ever tripped and fell into the San Andreas
Fault. But as she dabs at her dry eyes, I remember
those old movies where the earth does open.

There's always one blonde entomologist,... (Read full poem)

23. Graves - written by Hayden Carruth
Read 1509 times on American Poems.

Both of us had been close
to Joel, and at Joel's death
my friend had gone to the wake
and the memorial service
and more recently he had
visited Joel's grave, there
at the back of the grassy
cemetery among the trees,
"a quiet, gentle... (Read full poem)

Back of my back, they talk of me,
Gabble and honk and hiss;
Let them batten, and let them be-
Me, I can sing them this:

"Better to shiver beneath the stars,
Head on a faithless breast,
Than peer at the night through rusted bars,
And share an... (Read full poem)

25. Mrs. Benjamin Painter - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 402 times on American Poems.

I know that he told how I snared his soul
With a snare which bled him to death.
And all the men loved him,
And most of the women pitied him.
But suppose you are really a lady, and have delicate tastes,
And loathe the smell of whisky and... (Read full poem)