1. What A Writer - written by Charles Bukowski
Read 2575 times on American Poems.

what i liked about e.e. cummings
was that he cut away from 
the holiness of the
word
and with charm
and gamble
gave us lines
that sliced through the
dung.

how it was needed!
how we were withering 
away
in the old
tired
manner.

of course, then came... (Read full poem)

Witchcraft was hung, in History,
But History and I
Find all the Witchcraft that we need
Around us, every Day --(Read full poem)

3. Yesterday is History, - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 5776 times on American Poems.

Yesterday is History,
'Tis so far away --
Yesterday is Poetry --
'Tis Philosophy --

Yesterday is mystery --
Where it is Today
While we shrewdly speculate
Flutter both away(Read full poem)

A man is bringing a cup of coffee to his face, 
tilting it to his mouth. It's historical, he thinks. 
He scratches his head: another historical event. 
He really ought to rest, he's making an awful lot of 
history this morning.
  Oh my, now he's... (Read full poem)

5. Milkweed - written by Philip Levine
Read 579 times on American Poems.

Remember how unimportant 
they seemed, growing loosely 
in the open fields we crossed 
on the way to school. We 
would carve wooden swords 
and slash at the luscious trunks 
until the white milk started 
and then flowed. Then we'd 
go on to the long... (Read full poem)

History has to live with what was here,
clutching and close to fumbling all we had--
it is so dull and gruesome how we die,
unlike writing, life never finishes.
Abel was finished; death is not remote,
a flash-in-the-pan electrifies the... (Read full poem)

7. Tomes - written by Billy Collins
Read 1753 times on American Poems.

There is a section in my library for death
and another for Irish history,
a few shelves for the poetry of China and Japan,
and in the center a row of imperturbable reference books,
the ones you can turn to anytime,
when the night is going wrong
or... (Read full poem)

I AM the people--the mob--the crowd--the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is
done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the
world's food and clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The... (Read full poem)

9. Million Man March Poem - written by Maya Angelou
Read 10365 times on American Poems.

The night has been long,
The wound has been deep,
The pit has been dark,
And the walls have been steep.

Under a dead blue sky on a distant beach,
I was dragged by my braids just beyond your reach.
Your hands were tied, your mouth was... (Read full poem)

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping... (Read full poem)

11. This Dust was Once the Man. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 5899 times on American Poems.

THIS dust was once the Man, 
Gentle, plain, just and resolute—under whose cautious hand, 
Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age, 
Was saved the Union of These States.(Read full poem)

THIS Mohammedan colonel from the Caucasus yells with his voice and wigwags with his arms.
The interpreter translates, “I was a friend of Kornilov, he asks me what to do and I tell him.”
A stub of a man, this Mohammedan colonel … a... (Read full poem)

13. An Infinite Number Of Monkeys - written by Ronald Koertge
Read 907 times on American Poems.

After all the Shakespeare, the book
of poems they type is the saddest
in history.

But before they can finish it,
they have to wait for that Someone
who is always

looking to look away. Only then
can they strike the million
keys that... (Read full poem)

How the Waters closed above Him
We shall never know --
How He stretched His Anguish to us
That -- is covered too --

Spreads the Pond Her Base of Lilies
Bold above the Boy
Whose unclaimed Hat and Jacket
Sum the History --(Read full poem)

15. The Blue Swallows - written by Howard Nemerov
Read 954 times on American Poems.

Across the millstream below the bridge 
Seven blue swallows divide the air 
In shapes invisible and evanescent, 
Kaleidoscopic beyond the mind’s 
Or memory’s power to keep them there. 

“History is where tensions were,” 
“Form is the diagram... (Read full poem)

is it the cut glass 
of their eyes
looking up toward
the new gnarled branch 
of the black man
hanging from a tree?

is it the white milk pleated
collar of the woman
smiling toward the camera,
her fingers loose around
a christian cross... (Read full poem)

17. Song of One of the Girls - written by Dorothy Parker
From Enough Rope. Published in 1926. Read 4029 times on American Poems.

Here in my heart I am Helen;
I'm Aspasia and Hero, at least.
I'm Judith, and Jael, and Madame de Stael;
I'm Salome, moon of the East.

Here in my soul I am Sappho;
Lady Hamilton am I, as well.
In me Recamier vies with Kitty O'Shea,
With Dido, and... (Read full poem)

One Crucifixion is recorded -- only --
How many be
Is not affirmed of Mathematics --
Or History --

One Calvary -- exhibited to Stranger --
As many be
As persons -- or Peninsulas --
Gethsemane --

Is but a Province -- in the Being's Centre --
Judea... (Read full poem)

19. The Battle fought between the Soul - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1693 times on American Poems.

The Battle fought between the Soul
And No Man -- is the One
Of all the Battles prevalent --
By far the Greater One --

No News of it is had abroad --
Its Bodiless Campaign
Establishes, and terminates --
Invisible -- Unknown --

Nor History -- record... (Read full poem)

i am accused of tending to the past
as if i made it,
as if i sculpted it
with my own hands. i did not.
this past was waiting for me
when i came,
a monstrous unnamed baby,
and i with my mother's itch
took it to breast
and named... (Read full poem)

21. To a Historian. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 9405 times on American Poems.

YOU who celebrate bygones! 
Who have explored the outward, the surfaces of the races—the life that has
	exhibited itself; 
Who have treated of man as the creature of politics, aggregates, rulers and
	priests; 
I, habitan of the Alleghanies,... (Read full poem)

As far from pity, as complaint --
As cool to speech -- as stone --
As numb to Revelation
As if my Trade were Bone --

As far from time -- as History --
As near yourself -- Today --
As Children, to the Rainbow's scarf --
Or Sunset's Yellow play

To... (Read full poem)

23. Yes And No - written by Laura Riding Jackson
Read 2489 times on American Poems.

Across a continent imaginary
Because it cannot be discovered now
Upon this fully apprehended planet—
No more applicants considered,
Alas, alas—

Ran an animal unzoological,
Without a fate, without a fact,
Its private history... (Read full poem)

Dust is the only Secret --
Death, the only One
You cannot find out all about
In his "native town."

Nobody know "his Father" --
Never was a Boy --
Hadn't any playmates,
Or "Early history" --

Industrious! Laconic!
Punctual! Sedate!
Bold as a... (Read full poem)

25. In Those Years - written by Adrienne Rich
Read 8105 times on American Poems.

In those years, people will say, we lost track
of the meaning of we, of you
we found ourselves
reduced to I
and the whole thing became
silly, ironic, terrible:
we were trying to live a personal life
and yes, that was the only life
we could... (Read full poem)