1. First Memory - written by Louise Gluck
From Ararat. Published in 1990. Read 3478 times on American Poems.

Long ago, I was wounded. I lived
to revenge myself
against my father, not
for what he was--
for what I was: from the beginning of time,
in childhood, I thought
that pain meant
I was not loved.
It meant I loved.(Read full poem)

I meant to find Her when I came --
Death -- had the same design --
But the Success -- was His -- it seems --
And the Surrender -- Mine --

I meant to tell Her how I longed
For just this single time --
But Death had told Her so the first --
And she... (Read full poem)

3. Pain has but one Acquaintance - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1991 times on American Poems.

Pain has but one Acquaintance
And that is Death --
Each one unto the other
Society enough.

Pain is the Junior Party
By just a Second's right --
Death tenderly assists Him
And then absconds from Sight.(Read full poem)

Pain -- has an Element of Blank --
It cannot recollect
When it begun -- or if there were
A time when it was not --

It has no Future -- but itself --
Its Infinite contain
Its Past -- enlightened to perceive
New Periods -- of Pain.(Read full poem)

5. To E.T. - written by Robert Frost
From New Hampshire. Published in 1923. Read 6966 times on American Poems.

I slumbered with your poems on my breast
Spread open as I dropped them half-read through
Like dove wings on a figure on a tomb
To see, if in a dream they brought of you,

I might not have the chance I missed in life
Through some delay, and... (Read full poem)

Pain -- expands the Time --
Ages coil within
The minute Circumference
Of a single Brain --

Pain contracts -- the Time --
Occupied with Shot
Gamuts of Eternities
Are as they were not --(Read full poem)

7. Three Oranges - written by Charles Bukowski
Read 3044 times on American Poems.

first time my father overheard me listening to
this bit of music he asked me,
"what is it?"
"it's called Love For Three Oranges,"
I informed him.
"boy," he said, "that's getting it
cheap."
he meant... (Read full poem)

I meant to have but modest needs --
Such as Content -- and Heaven --
Within my income -- these could lie
And Life and I -- keep even --

But since the last -- included both --
It would suffice my Prayer
But just for One -- to stipulate --
And Grace... (Read full poem)

9. Tenth Commandment - written by David Lehman
Read 906 times on American Poems.

The woman said yes she would go to Australia with him
Unless he heard wrong and she said Argentina
Where they could learn the tango and pursue the widows
Of Nazi war criminals unrepentant to the end.
But no, she said Australia. She'd been born in... (Read full poem)

The hallowing of Pain
Like hallowing of Heaven,
Obtains at a corporeal cost --
The Summit is not given

To Him who strives severe
At middle of the Hill --
But He who has achieved the Top --
All -- is the price of All --(Read full poem)

11. There is a pain -- so utter -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2973 times on American Poems.

There is a pain -- so utter --
It swallows substance up --
Then covers the Abyss with Trance --
So Memory can step
Around -- across -- upon it --
As one within a Swoon --
Goes safely -- where an open eye --
Would drop Him -- Bone by Bone.(Read full poem)

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)

13. If pain for peace prepares - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 4570 times on American Poems.

If pain for peace prepares
Lo, what "Augustan" years
Our feet await!

If springs from winter rise,
Can the Anemones
Be reckoned up?

If night stands fast -- then noon
To gird us for the sun,
What gaze!

When from a thousand skies
On our developed... (Read full poem)

There is a Languor of the Life
More imminent than Pain --
'Tis Pain's Successor -- When the Soul
Has suffered all it can --

A Drowsiness -- diffuses --
A Dimness like a Fog
Envelops Consciousness --
As Mists -- obliterate a Crag.

The Surgeon --... (Read full poem)

15. Marina - written by Charles Bukowski
Read 2301 times on American Poems.

majestic, majic
infinite
my little girl is
sun
on the carpet-
out the door
picking a flower, ha!
an old man,
battle-wrecked,
emerges from his
chair
and she looks at me
but only sees
love,
ha!, and I become
quick with the world
and love right... (Read full poem)

Through that window—all else being extinct
Except itself and me—I saw the struggle
Of darkness against darkness. Within the room
It turned and turned, dived downward. Then I saw
How order might—if chaos wished—become:
And saw... (Read full poem)

17. April 26 - written by David Lehman
Read 675 times on American Poems.

When my father
Said mein Fehler
I thought it meant
"I'm a failure"
which was my error
which is what
mein Fehler means
in German which
is what my parents
spoke at home(Read full poem)

“Tell me what you’re doing over here, John Gorham, 
Sighing hard and seeming to be sorry when you’re not; 
Make me laugh or let me go now, for long faces in the moonlight 
Are a sign for me to say again a word that you forgot.”— 

“I’m over... (Read full poem)

19. After great pain, a formal feeling comes - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 25095 times on American Poems.

After great pain, a formal feeling comes --
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs --
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?

The Feet, mechanical, go round --
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought --
A Wooden... (Read full poem)

When the King of Siam disliked a courtier, 
he gave him a beautiful white elephant. 
The miracle beast deserved such ritual 
that to care for him properly meant ruin. 
Yet to care for him improperly was worse. 
It appears the gift could not be... (Read full poem)

21. November 6 - written by David Lehman
Read 2137 times on American Poems.

Remember when Khrushchev said
"We will bury you!"
on the cover
of Time
I thought he was
employing a metaphor
as in "Braves Scalp Giants!"
on the back page
of the Daily News
I pictured the Russians
burying us under a mound
of all the rubble
that... (Read full poem)

To learn the Transport by the Pain
As Blind Men learn the sun!
To die of thirst -- suspecting
That Brooks in Meadows run!

To stay the homesick -- homesick feet
Upon a foreign shore --
Haunted by native lands, the while --
And blue -- beloved... (Read full poem)

23. Testament - written by Dorothy Parker
From Enough Rope. Published in 1926. Read 2327 times on American Poems.

Oh, let it be a night of lyric rain
And singing breezes, when my bell is tolled.
I have so loved the rain that I would hold
Last in my ears its friendly, dim refraln.
I shall lie cool and quiet, who have lain
Fevered, and watched the book of day... (Read full poem)

AMONG the men and women, the multitude, 
I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs, 
Acknowledging none else—not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I
    am; 
Some are baffled—But that one is... (Read full poem)

25. These Things - written by Charles Bukowski
Read 1609 times on American Poems.

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)