1. The Black Unicorn - written by Audre Lorde
Read 4593 times on American Poems.

The black unicorn is greedy. 
The black unicorn is impatient. 
'The black unicorn was mistaken 
for a shadow or symbol
and taken
through a cold country 
where mist painted mockeries 
of my fury.
It is not on her lap where the horn rests 
but deep in... (Read full poem)

Black lake, black boat, two black, cut-paper people.
Where do the black trees go that drink here?
Their shadows must cover Canada.

A little light is filtering from the water flowers.
Their leaves do not wish us to hurry:
They are round and flat and... (Read full poem)

3. Black riders came from the sea. - written by Stephen Crane
From The Black Riders & Other Lines. Published in 1905. Read 29997 times on American Poems.

Black riders came from the sea.
There was clang and clang of spear and shield,
And clash and clash of hoof and heel,
Wild shouts and the wave of hair
In the rush upon the wind:
Thus the ride of sin.(Read full poem)

curling them around
i hold their bodies in obscene embrace
thinking of everything but kinship.
collards and kale
strain against each strange other
away from my kissmaking hand and
the iron bedpot.
the pot is black.
the cutting board is... (Read full poem)

5. The Black Berry -- wears a Thorn in his side -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1968 times on American Poems.

The Black Berry -- wears a Thorn in his side --
But no Man heard Him cry --
He offers His Berry, just the same
To Partridge -- and to Boy --

He sometimes holds upon the Fence --
Or struggles to a Tree --
Or clasps a Rock, with both His Hands --
But... (Read full poem)

Walking in the sky,
A man in strange black garb
Encountered a radiant form.
Then his steps were eager;
Bowed he devoutly.
"My Lord," said he.
But the spirit knew him not.(Read full poem)

7. Father - written by Philip Levine
Read 1073 times on American Poems.

The long lines of diesels 
groan toward evening 
carrying off the breath 
of the living. 
The face of your house 
is black, 
it is your face, black 
and fire bombed 
in the first street wars, 
a black tooth planted in the earth 
of Michigan 
and... (Read full poem)

a total stranger one black day
knocked living the hell out of me-- 

who found forgiveness hard because
my(as it happened)self he was 

-but now that fiend and i are such
immortal friends the other's each(Read full poem)

9. There was crimson clash of war. - written by Stephen Crane
From The Black Riders & Other Lines. Published in 1905. Read 5555 times on American Poems.

There was crimson clash of war.
Lands turned black and bare;
Women wept;
Babes ran, wondering.
There came one who understood not these things.
He said, "Why is this?"
Whereupon a million strove to answer him.
There was such intricate clamour of... (Read full poem)

When I get to be a composer
I'm gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew.
I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in... (Read full poem)

11. Muier - written by William Carlos Williams
Read 2605 times on American Poems.

Oh, black Persian cat! 
Was not your life 
already cursed with offspring? 
We took you for rest to that old 
Yankee farm,—so lonely 
and with so many field mice 
in the long grass—
and you return to us 
in this condition—! 

Oh,... (Read full poem)

Two or three angels
Came near to the earth.
They saw a fat church.
Little black streams of people
Came and went in continually.
And the angels were puzzled
To know why the people went thus,
And why they stayed so long within.(Read full poem)

13. Spanish - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 2189 times on American Poems.

FASTEN black eyes on me.
I ask nothing of you under the peach trees,
Fasten your black eyes in my gray with the spear of a storm.
The air under the peach blossoms is a haze of pink.(Read full poem)

I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the... (Read full poem)

15. Should the wide world roll away, - written by Stephen Crane
From The Black Riders & Other Lines. Published in 1905. Read 5022 times on American Poems.

Should the wide world roll away,
Leaving black terror,
Limitless night,
Nor God, nor man, nor place to stand
Would be to me essential,
If thou and thy white arms were there,
And the fall to doom a long way.(Read full poem)

Black reapers with the sound of steel on stones
Are sharpening scythes. I see them place the hones
In their hip-pockets as a thing that's done,
And start their silent swinging, one by one.
Black horses drive a mower through the weeds,
And... (Read full poem)

17. Behold, from the land of the farther suns - written by Stephen Crane
From The Black Riders & Other Lines. Published in 1905. Read 2517 times on American Poems.

Behold, from the land of the farther suns
I returned.
And I was in a reptile-swarming place,
Peopled, otherwise, with grimaces,
Shrouded above in black impenetrableness.
I shrank, loathing,
Sick with it.
And I said to him,
"What is this?"
He made... (Read full poem)

A spirit sped
Through spaces of night;
And as he sped, he called,
"God! God!"
He went through valleys
Of black death-slime,
Ever calling,
"God! God!"
Their echoes
From crevice and cavern
Mocked him:
"God! God! God!"
Fleetly into the plains of... (Read full poem)

19. Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1632 times on American Poems.

Bees are Black, with Gilt Surcingles --
Buccaneers of Buzz.
Ride abroad in ostentation
And subsist on Fuzz.

Fuzz ordained -- not Fuzz contingent --
Marrows of the Hill.
Jugs -- a Universe's fracture
Could not jar or spill.(Read full poem)

God lay dead in heaven;
Angels sang the hymn of the end;
Purple winds went moaning,
Their wings drip-dripping
With blood
That fell upon the earth.
It, groaning thing,
Turned black and sank.
Then from the far caverns
Of dead sins
Came monsters, livid... (Read full poem)

21. Caught in a Net - written by Vachel Lindsay
Read 707 times on American Poems.

Upon her breast her hands and hair 
Were tangled all together. 
The moon of June forbade me not — 
The golden night time weather 
In balmy sighs commanded me 
To kiss them like a feather. 

Her looming hair, her burning hands, 
Were tangled... (Read full poem)

Jellicle Cats come out tonight,
Jellicle Cats come one come all:
The Jellicle Moon is shining bright--
Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball.

Jellicle Cats are black and white,
Jellicle Cats are rather small;
Jellicle Cats are merry and bright,
And... (Read full poem)

23. Coloring Book - written by Connie Wanek
Read 1417 times on American Poems.

Each picture is heartbreakingly banal,
a kitten and a ball of yarn,
a dog and bone.
The paper is cheap, easily torn.
A coloring book's authority is derived
from its heavy black lines
as unalterable as the ten commandments
within which minor... (Read full poem)

For a moment it flashed
through me, I thought I
remembered being someone before now,
the her who was me
hurt, felt,
embedded like a whorl in wood.
The photograph is black and white,
but I know the dress was amber--
she bells out toward... (Read full poem)

25. January 24 - written by David Lehman
Read 1285 times on American Poems.

I was about to be mugged by a man 
with a chain so angry he growled
at the Lincoln Center subway station
when out of nowhere appeared a tall
chubby-faced Hasidic Jew with peyot
and a black hat a black coat white shirt
with prayer-shawl fringes... (Read full poem)