1. Thought for a Sunshiny Morning - written by Dorothy Parker
From Sunset Gun. Published in 1928. Read 2638 times on American Poems.

It costs me never a stab nor squirm
To tread by chance upon a worm.
"Aha, my little dear," I say,
"Your clan will pay me back one day."(Read full poem)

HOW solemn, as one by one, 
As the ranks returning, all worn and sweaty—as the men file by where I stand; 
As the faces, the masks appear—as I glance at the faces, studying the masks; 
(As I glance upward out of this page, studying you,... (Read full poem)

3. Mascots - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 1836 times on American Poems.

I WILL keep you and bring hands to hold you against a great hunger.
I will run a spear in you for a great gladness to die with.
I will stab you between the ribs of the left side with a great love worth remembering.(Read full poem)

One Joy of so much anguish
Sweet nature has for me
I shun it as I do Despair
Or dear iniquity --
Why Birds, a Summer morning
Before the Quick of Day
Should stab my ravished spirit
With Dirks of Melody
Is part of an inquiry
That will receive... (Read full poem)

5. Kill your Balm -- and its Odors bless you - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1779 times on American Poems.

Kill your Balm -- and its Odors bless you --
Bare your Jessamine -- to the storm --
And she will fling her maddest perfume --
Haply -- your Summer night to Charm --

Stab the Bird -- that built in your bosom --
Oh, could you catch her last Refrain... (Read full poem)

NOW the stone house on the lake front is finished and the
workmen are beginning the fence.
The palings are made of iron bars with steel points that
can stab the life out of any man who falls on them.
As a fence, it is a masterpiece, and will shut... (Read full poem)

7. I should not dare to leave my friend, - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 4759 times on American Poems.

I should not dare to leave my friend,
Because -- because if he should die
While I was gone -- and I -- too late --
Should reach the Heart that wanted me --

If I should disappoint the eyes
That hunted -- hunted so -- to see --
And could not bear to... (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)

9. The Fury Of Hating Eyes - written by Anne Sexton
From The Death Notebooks. Published in 1974. Read 2955 times on American Poems.

I would like to bury 
all the hating eyes 
under the sand somewhere off 
the North Atlantic and suffocate 
them with the awful sand 
and put all their colors to sleep 
in that soft smother. 
Take the brown eyes of my father, 
those gun shots, those... (Read full poem)

Heavy-hocked, barrel-bellied,
exhaling billows of steam, they wait
while the corn, wheat, clover,
and potato fields surround us, finished
for the season. We listened to their hooves
shift. Blue tongues lick black shoulders,
impatient horns... (Read full poem)

11. Curse of the Cat Woman - written by Edward Field
Published in 1967. Read 757 times on American Poems.

It sometimes happens
that the woman you meet and fall in love with
is of that strange Transylvanian people
with an affinity for cats.

You take her to a restuarant, say, or a show,
on an ordinary date, being attracted
by the glitter in her... (Read full poem)

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)

13. The Whistling Girl - written by Dorothy Parker
From Sunset Gun. Published in 1928. Read 3436 times on American Poems.

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)

The disorganization to which I currently belong
has skipped several meetings in a row
which is a pattern I find almost fatally attractive.
Down at headquarters there's a secretary
and a janitor who I shall call Suzie
and boy can she ever shoot... (Read full poem)

15. I Go Back To The House For A Book - written by Billy Collins
Read 2610 times on American Poems.

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)

Why did you turn back,
that hell should be reinhabited
of myself thus
swept into nothingness?

Why did you turn?
why did you glance back?

So you have swept me back--
I who could have walked with the live souls
above the earth.
I who could have... (Read full poem)

17. February: Thinking of Flowers - written by Jane Kenyon
Read 2580 times on American Poems.

Now wind torments the field,
turning the white surface back
on itself, back and back on itself,
like an animal licking a wound.

Nothing but white--the air, the light;
only one brown milkweed pod
bobbing in the gully, smallest
brown boat on... (Read full poem)

I shall come back without fanfaronade
Of wailing wind and graveyard panoply;
But, trembling, slip from cool Eternity-
A mild and most bewildered little shade.
I shall not make sepulchral midnight raid,
But softly come where I had longed to be
In... (Read full poem)

19. Not To Keep - written by Robert Frost
From New Hampshire. Published in 1923. Read 12565 times on American Poems.

They sent him back to her. The letter came
Saying... And she could have him. And before
She could be sure there was no hidden ill
Under the formal writing, he was in her sight,
Living. They gave him back to her alive
How else? They are not... (Read full poem)

ONE man killed another. The saying between them had been “I’d give you the shirt off my back.”
  
The killer wept over the dead. The dead if he looks back knows the killer was sorry. It was a shot in one second of hate out of ten... (Read full poem)

21. Inscription for the Ceiling of a Bedroom - written by Dorothy Parker
From Enough Rope. Published in 1926. Read 4255 times on American Poems.

Daily dawns another day;
I must up, to make my way.
Though I dress and drink and eat,
Move my fingers and my feet,
Learn a little, here and there,
Weep and laugh and sweat and swear,
Hear a song, or watch a stage,
Leave some words upon a page,
Claim... (Read full poem)

You pull over to the shoulder
         of the two-lane
road and sit for a moment wondering
         where you were going
in such a hurry. The valley is burned
         out, the oaks
dream day and night of rain
         that never comes.
At noon or... (Read full poem)

23. The Ghost - written by Sara Teasdale
Read 1760 times on American Poems.

I went back to the clanging city,
 I went back where my old loves stayed,
But my heart was full of my new love's glory,
 My eyes were laughing and unafraid.

I met one who had loved me madly
 And told his love for all to hear --
But we talked of a... (Read full poem)

Shine on, O moon of summer.
Shine to the leaves of grass, catalpa and oak,
All silver under your rain to-night.

An Italian boy is sending songs to you to-night from an
     accordion.
A Polish boy is out with his best girl; they marry next... (Read full poem)

25. 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)