1. Birthday of but a single pang - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 9801 times on American Poems.

Birthday of but a single pang
That there are less to come --
Afflictive is the Adjective
But affluent the doom --(Read full poem)

Funny -- to be a Century --
And see the People -- going by --
I -- should die of the Oddity --
But then -- I'm not so staid -- as He --

He keeps His Secrets safely -- very --
Were He to tell -- extremely sorry
This Bashful Globe of Ours would be... (Read full poem)

3. Dream Song 112: My framework is broken, I am coming to an end - written by John Berryman
From His Toy, His Dream, His Rest. Published in 1968. Read 1656 times on American Poems.

My framework is broken, I am coming to an end,
God send it soon. When I had most to say
my tongue clung to the roof
I mean of my mouth. It is my Lady's birthday
which must be honoured, and has been. God send
it soon.

I now must speak to my... (Read full poem)

Eighty-one degrees a record high for the day
which is not my birthday but will do until
the eleventh of June comes around and I know
what I want: a wide-brimmed Panama hat
with a tan hatband, a walk in the park
and to share a shower with a zaftig... (Read full poem)

5. Cloony The Clown - written by Shel Silverstein
From A Light in the Attic. Published in 1981. Read 68863 times on American Poems.

I'll tell you the story of Cloony the Clown
Who worked in a circus that came through town.
His shoes were too big and his hat was too small,
But he just wasn't, just wasn't funny at all.
He had a trombone to play loud silly tunes,
He had a... (Read full poem)

Thirty today, I saw
The trees flare briefly like
The candles on a cake,
As the sun went down the sky,
A momentary flash,
Yet there was time to wish(Read full poem)

7. Birth Day - written by Elise Paschen
From Birthday Poems: A Celebration. Published in 2002. Read 1932 times on American Poems.

For Alexandra, born May 17, 1999


Armored in red, her voice commands
every corner. Bells gong on squares,
in steeples, answering the prayers.
Bright tulips crown the boulevards.

Pulled from the womb she imitates
that mythic kick from some god's... (Read full poem)

Just past dawn, the sun stands
with its heavy red head
in a black stanchion of trees,
waiting for someone to come
with his bucket
for the foamy white light,
and then a long day in the pasture.
I too spend my days grazing,
feasting on every green... (Read full poem)

9. admonitions - written by Lucille Clifton
Read 4395 times on American Poems.

boys
i don't promise you nothing
but this
what you pawn
i will redeem
what you steal
i will conceal
my private silence to
your public guilt
is all i got

girls
first time a white man
opens his fly
like a good thing
we'll just... (Read full poem)

To end up alone
in a tomb of a room
without cigarettes
or wine--
just a lightbulb
and a potbelly,
grayhaired,
and glad to have
the room. 
...in the morning
they're out there
making money:
judges, carpenters,
plumbers, doctors,
newsboys,... (Read full poem)

11. Occasional Poems - written by Delmore Schwartz
Published in 1958. Read 1633 times on American Poems.

I Christmas Poem for Nancy

Noel, Noel
We live and we die
Between heaven and hell
Between the earth and the sky
And all shall be well
And all shall be unwell
And once again! all shall once again!
                All shall be well
By the ringing and... (Read full poem)

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
wich is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's... (Read full poem)

13. Christmas At The Orphanage - written by Bill Knott
Read 886 times on American Poems.

But if they'd give us toys and twice the stuff most
parents splurge on the average kid, orphans, I submit, need more than enough; 
in fact, stacks wrapped with our names nearly hid
the tree: these sparkling allotments yearly
guaranteed a lack... (Read full poem)

One way to be very happy is to be very rich
For then you can buy orchids by the quire and bacon by the flitch.
And yet at the same time People don't mind if you only tip them a dime,
Because it's very funny
But somehow if you're rich enough you can... (Read full poem)

15. For K.R. on her Sixtieth Birthday - written by Richard Wilbur
Read 2656 times on American Poems.

Blow out the candles of your cake.
They will not leave you in the dark,
Who round with grace this dusky arc
Of the grand tour which souls must take.

You who have sounded William Blake,
And the still pool, to Plato's mark,
Blow out the... (Read full poem)

drunk again at 3 a.m. at the end of my 2nd bottle
of wine, I have typed from a dozen to 15 pages of
poesy
an old man
maddened for the flesh of young girls in this
dwindling twilight
liver gone
kidneys going
pancrea pooped
top-floor blood pressure... (Read full poem)

17. Indispensable Sign - written by Lee Upton
Read 572 times on American Poems.

Under the bank of fountains
in the cavern
between the rounded steps some man

is—what can I say—
showing himself to us?
The funny way we say it:

exposing himself,
as if he were a strip of film.
I had been staring into the distance

and... (Read full poem)

Since Christmas they have lived with us,
Guileless and clear,
Oval soul-animals,
Taking up half the space,
Moving and rubbing on the silk

Invisible air drifts,
Giving a shriek and pop
When attacked, then scooting to rest, barely trembling.
Yellow... (Read full poem)

19. The Gentlest Lady - written by Dorothy Parker
From Sunset Gun. Published in 1928. Read 3192 times on American Poems.

They say He was a serious child,
And quiet in His ways;
They say the gentlest lady smiled
To hear the neighbors' praise.

The coffers of her heart would close
Upon their smaliest word.
Yet did they say, "How tall He grows!"
They thought she had not... (Read full poem)

So let me have the rouge again,
And comb my hair the curly way.
The poor young men, the dear young men
They'll all be here by noon today.

And I shall wear the blue, I think-
They beg to touch its rippled lace;
Or do they love me best in pink,
So... (Read full poem)

21. Nostos - written by Louise Gluck
From Meadowlands. Published in 1996. Read 1878 times on American Poems.

There was an apple tree in the yard --
this would have been
forty years ago -- behind,
only meadows. Drifts
of crocus in the damp grass.
I stood at that window:
late April. Spring
flowers in the neighbor's yard.
How many times, really, did... (Read full poem)

(For the Rev. James J. Daly, S. J.)

Bright stars, yellow stars, flashing through the air,
Are you errant strands of Lady Mary's hair?
As she slits the cloudy veil and bends down through,
Do you fall across her cheeks and over heaven too?
Gay... (Read full poem)

23. Dream Song 106: 28 July - written by John Berryman
From His Toy, His Dream, His Rest. Published in 1968. Read 720 times on American Poems.

28 July
                                   
Calmly, while sat up friendlies & made noise
delight fuller than he can ready sing
or studiously say,
on hearing that the year had swung to pause
and culminated in an abundant thing,
came his... (Read full poem)

And do not be indiscreet or unconventional. Play it safe.

Listen here. I've never played it safe
in spite of what the critics say.
Ask my imaginary brother, that waif,
that childhood best friend who comes to play
dress-up and stick-up and jacks and... (Read full poem)

25. Birthday (Autobiography) - written by Robinson Jeffers
Read 1533 times on American Poems.

Seventy years ago my mother labored to bear me,
A twelve-pound baby with a big head,
Her first, it was plain torture. Finally they used the forceps
And dragged me out, with one prong
In my right eye, and slapped and banged me until I breathed.
I am... (Read full poem)