1. My Friends - written by W.S. Merwin
Read 2987 times on American Poems.

My friends without shields walk on the target

It is late the windows are breaking

My friends without shoes leave
What they love
Grief moves among them as a fire among
Its bells
My friends without clocks turn
On the dial they turn
They part

My... (Read full poem)

I
My friends do not know.
But what could my friends not know?
About what? What friends?

II
She sleeps late each day,
stifling each reason to rise,
choked into the quilt.

III
"I'll never find work."
She swallows this thought with pills,
finds tears... (Read full poem)

3. Ballad of Dead Friends - written by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Read 2919 times on American Poems.

As we the withered ferns 
By the roadway lying, 
Time, the jester, spurns 
All our prayers and prying -- 
All our tears and sighing, 
Sorrow, change, and woe -- 
All our where-and-whying 
For friends that come and go. 

Life awakes and... (Read full poem)

Dear Friends, reproach me not for what I do,
Nor counsel me, nor pity me; nor say
That I am wearing half my life away
For bubble-work that only fools pursue.
And if my bubbles be too small for you,
Blow bigger then your own: the games we... (Read full poem)

5. Dream Song 45: He stared at ruin. Ruin stared straight back - written by John Berryman
From 77 Dream Songs. Published in 1964. Read 841 times on American Poems.

He stared at ruin. Ruin stared straight back.
He thought they was old friends. He felt on the stair
where her papa found them bare
they became familiar. When the papers were lost
rich with pals' secrets, he thought he had the knack
of ruin.... (Read full poem)

In the lust of my strength
I cursed God, but he paid no attention to me:
I might as well have cursed the stars.
In my last sickness I was in agony, but I was resolute
And I cursed God for my suffering;
Still He paid no attention to me;
He left... (Read full poem)

7. Fable - written by Dorothy Parker
From Sunset Gun. Published in 1928. Read 2606 times on American Poems.

Oh, there once was a lady, and so I've been told,
Whose lover grew weary, whose lover grew cold.
"My child," he remarked, "though our episode ends,
In the manner of men, I suggest we be friends."
And the truest of friends ever after they were-
Oh,... (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. Are Friends Delight or Pain? - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 4622 times on American Poems.

Are Friends Delight or Pain?
Could Bounty but remain
Riches were good --

But if they only stay
Ampler to fly away
Riches are sad.(Read full poem)

Come, let us pity those who are better off than we are.
Come, my friend, and remember
        that the rich have butlers and no friends,
And we have friends and no butlers.
Come, let us pity the married and the unmarried.

Dawn enters with little... (Read full poem)

11. My Friends - written by Terence Winch
From The Great Indoors. Published in 1995. Read 1228 times on American Poems.

for Doug Lang

They came here first in a car shaped like a heart
and now they depart as brilliant jazz musicians.
They arrived in full costume, rolling north
through a winter of neon.
Now I watch them leaving me
in a moonlight of... (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)

13. Travel - written by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Read 7969 times on American Poems.

The railroad track is miles away, 
    And the day is loud with voices speaking, 
Yet there isn't a train goes by all day 
    But I hear its whistle shrieking.

All night there isn't a train goes by, 
    Though the night is still for sleep and... (Read full poem)

If the town celebrates
his roasting
it's their right. He's their hog.
He's pork now. 

His life in the mash has gone sour.
The bad fairy presides
over his crispy feet.
The prodigal has come back 

and does not need
such company.
Now the fires licks... (Read full poem)

15. Le Roy Goldman - written by Edgar Lee Masters
Read 443 times on American Poems.

"What will you do when you come to die,
If all your life long you have rejected Jesus,
And know as you lie there, He is not your friend?"
Over and over I said, I, the revivalist.
Ah, yes! but there are friends and friends.
And blessed are... (Read full poem)

After I wrote this, a friend scrawled on this page, "Yes." 

And I said, merely to myself, "I wish it could be for a 
different seizure--as with Molly Bloom and her ‘and 
yes I said yes I will Yes."

It is not a turtle 
hiding in its little green... (Read full poem)

17. In The Garden - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 1660 times on American Poems.

One moment alone in the garden, 
Under the August skies; 
The moon had gone but the stars shone on, -
Shone like your beautiful eyes.
Away from the glitter and gaslight, 
Alone in the garden there, 
While the mirth of the throng, in laugh and... (Read full poem)

I had over prepared the event,
that much was ominous.
With middle-ageing care
I had laid out just the right books.
I had almost turned down the pages.

Beauty is so rare a thing.
So few drink of my fountain.

So much barren regret,
So many... (Read full poem)

19. 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)

Ah, in the night, all music haunts me here. . . .
Is it for naught high Heaven cracks and yawns
And the tremendous Amaranth descends
Sweet with the glory of ten thousand dawns?

Does it not mean my God would have me say: — 
"Whether you will... (Read full poem)

21. Possessions Are Nine Points Of Conversation - written by Ogden Nash
Read 2604 times on American Poems.

Some people, and it doesn't matter whether they are paupers or millionaires, 
Think that anything they have is the best in the world just because it is theirs. 
If they happen to own a 1921 jalopy, 
They look at their neighbor's new de luxe... (Read full poem)

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so.
After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns,
we ourselves flash and yearn,
and moreover my mother told me as a boy
(repeatedly) 'Ever to confess you're bored
means you have no

Inner... (Read full poem)

23. My Comrade - written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Read 442 times on American Poems.

Out from my window westward 
I turn full oft my face; 
But the mountains rebuke the vision 
That would encompass space; 
They lift their lofty foreheads 
To the kiss of the clouds above, 
And ask, "With all our glory, 
Can we not win your... (Read full poem)

Together in this grave lie Benjamin Painter, attorney at law, 
And Nig, his dog, constant companion, solace and friend. 
Down the grey road, friends, children, men and women, 
Passing one by one out of life, left me till I was alone 
With Nig... (Read full poem)

25. Peekabo, I Almost See You - written by Ogden Nash
Read 3595 times on American Poems.

Middle-aged life is merry, and I love to
     lead it,
But there comes a day when your eyes
     are all right but your arm isn't long
     enough
     to hold the telephone book where you      can read it,
And your friends get jocular, so you go... (Read full poem)