1. Convalescence - written by Amy Lowell
From Sword Blades & Poppy Seed. Read 1481 times on American Poems.

From out the dragging vastness of the sea,
Wave-fettered, bound in sinuous, seaweed strands,
He toils toward the rounding beach, and stands
One moment, white and dripping, silently,
Cut like a cameo in lazuli,
Then falls, betrayed by shifting... (Read full poem)

After I had attended lectures
At our Chautauqua, and studied French
For twenty years, committing the grammar
Almost by heart,
I thought I'd take a trip to Paris
To give my culture a final polish.
So I went to Peoria for a passport --
(Thomas... (Read full poem)

3. Time Of Disturbance - written by Robinson Jeffers
From Hungerfield And Other Poems. Published in 1954. Read 832 times on American Poems.

The best is, in war or faction or ordinary vindictive
     life, not to take sides.
Leave it for children, and the emotional rabble of the
     streets, to back their horse or support a brawler.

But if you are forced into it: remember that... (Read full poem)

these things that we support most well 
have nothing to do with up, 
and we do with them 
out of boredom or fear or money 
or cracked intelligence; 
our circle and our candle of light 
being small, 
so small we cannot bear it, 
we heave out with... (Read full poem)

5. Dream Song 97: Henry of Donnybrook bred like a pig - written by John Berryman
From His Toy, His Dream, His Rest. Published in 1968. Read 710 times on American Poems.

Henry of Donnybrook bred like a pig,
bred when he was brittle, bred when big,
how he's sweating to support them.
Which birthday of the brighter darker man,
the Goya of the Globe & Blackfriars, whom—
our full earth smiled on... (Read full poem)

Herbert broke our engagement of eight years
When Annabelle returned to the village
From the Seminary, ah me!
If I had let my love for him alone
It might have grown into a beautiful sorrow --
Who knows? -- filling my life with healing... (Read full poem)

7. The Props assist the House - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1980 times on American Poems.

The Props assist the House
Until the House is built
And then the Props withdraw
And adequate, erect,
The House support itself
And cease to recollect
The Auger and the Carpenter --
Just such a retrospect
Hath the perfected Life --
A past of Plank and... (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. Little Brown Brother - written by Nick Carbo
From El Grupo McDonald's. Published in 1995. Read 2210 times on American Poems.

I've always wanted to play the part 
of that puckish pubescent Filipino boy

in those John Wayne Pacific-War movies.
Pepe, Jose, or Juanito would be smiling,

bare-chested and eager to please
for most of the steamy jungle scenes.

I'd be the one who... (Read full poem)

Saint, revolutionist,
God and sage know well,
That there is a place
Where that much-rung bell,
The well-beloved body,
And its sensitive face
Must be sacrificed.

There is, it seems, in this
A something meaningless,
Hanging without support
And yet... (Read full poem)

11. Caul - written by Heather Fuller
From Dovecote. Published in 2002. Read 766 times on American Poems.

the childrens replay
setting the house on fire
the house that is not set
but setting still
as they say down
the Gospel Road smoking
stalks of old growth put
that in your pipe and be
gone with you

"you must have answered
me in your head"

to be so... (Read full poem)

O SUN of real peace! O hastening light! 
O free and extatic! O what I here, preparing, warble for! 
O the sun of the world will ascend, dazzling, and take his height—and you too, O my
    Ideal,
	will surely ascend! 
O so amazing and... (Read full poem)

13. The Rat Of Faith - written by Philip Levine
From A Walk with Tom Jefferson . Published in 1988. Read 538 times on American Poems.

A blue jay poses on a stake 
meant to support an apple tree 
newly planted. A strong wind 
on this clear cold morning 
barely ruffles his tail feathers. 
When he turns his attention 
toward me, I face his eyes 
without blinking. A week ago 
my wife... (Read full poem)

The poet asks, and Phillis can't refuse
To show th' obedience of the Infant muse.
She knows the Quail of most inviting taste
Fed Israel's army in the dreary waste;
And what's on Britain's royal standard borne,
But the tall, graceful, rampant... (Read full poem)

15. Thanksgiving - written by Mac Hammond
From Mappamundi: New and Selected Poems. Published in 1989. Read 593 times on American Poems.

The man who stands above the bird, his knife
Sharp as a Turkish scimitar, first removes
A thigh and leg, half the support
On which the turkey used to stand. This
Leg and thigh he sets on an extra
Plate. All his weight now on 
One leg, he... (Read full poem)

And now our government
a bird with two right wings
flies on from zone to zone
while we go on having our little fun & games
at each election
as if it really mattered who the pilot is
of Air Force One
(They're interchangeable, stupid!)
While this... (Read full poem)

17. Letter To Kizer From Seattle - written by Richard Hugo
From 31 Letters and 13 Dreams. Published in 1977. Read 468 times on American Poems.

Dear Condor: Much thanks for that telephonic support
from North Carolina when I suddenly went ape
in the Iowa tulips. Lord, but I'm ashamed.
I was afraid, it seemed, according to the doctor
of impending success, winning some poetry prizes
or getting... (Read full poem)

Like Oedipus I am losing my sight.
LIke Judas I have done my wrong.
Their punishment is over;
the shame and disgrace of it
are all used up.
But as for me,
look into my face
and you will know that crimes dropped upon me
as from a high building
and... (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)

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)

21. 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)

23. The Fear - written by Robert Frost
From North of Boston. Published in 1914. Read 12497 times on American Poems.

A lantern light from deeper in the barn
Shone on a man and woman in the door
And threw their lurching shadows on a house
Near by, all dark in every glossy window.
A horse's hoof pawed once the hollow floor,
And the back of the gig they stood... (Read full poem)

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)

25. I Shall Come Back - written by Dorothy Parker
From Enough Rope. Published in 1926. Read 4076 times on American Poems.

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)