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)

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)

3. Pain -- has an Element of Blank -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 6945 times on American Poems.

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)

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)

5. So Does Everybody Else, Only Not So Much - written by Ogden Nash
Read 2012 times on American Poems.

O all ye exorcizers come and exorcize now, and ye clergymen draw nigh and clerge, 
For I wish to be purged of an urge. 
It is an irksome urge, compounded of nettles and glue, 
And it is turning all my friends back into acquaintances, and all my... (Read full poem)

We shall not ever meet them bearded in heaven
Nor sunning themselves among the bald of hell;
If anywhere, in the deserted schoolyard at twilight,
forming a ring, perhaps, or joining hands
In games whose very names we have forgotten.
Come memory, let... (Read full poem)

7. The hallowing of Pain - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1900 times on American Poems.

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)

On the other side of a mirror there's an inverse world, 
where the insane go sane; where bones climb out of the 
earth and recede to the first slime of love.

  And in the evening the sun is just rising.

  Lovers cry because they are a day younger,... (Read full poem)

9. 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)

11. For My Daughter - written by David Ignatow
From Against the Evidence: Selected Poems 1934-1994. Read 1347 times on American Poems.

When I die choose a star
and name it after me
that you may know
I have not abandoned
or forgotten you.
You were such a star to me,
following you through birth
and childhood, my hand
in your hand.

When I die
choose a star and name it
after me so... (Read full poem)

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)

13. Sweet is the swamp with its secrets, - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2536 times on American Poems.

Sweet is the swamp with its secrets,
Until we meet a snake;
'Tis then we sigh for houses,
And our departure take

At that enthralling gallop
That only childhood knows.
A snake is summer's treason,
And guile is where it goes.(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. The Things that never can come back, are several -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1900 times on American Poems.

The Things that never can come back, are several --
Childhood -- some forms of Hope -- the Dead --
Though Joys -- like Men -- may sometimes make a Journey --
And still abide --
We do not mourn for Traveler, or Sailor,
Their Routes are fair --
But... (Read full poem)

Look, the eucalyptus, the Atlas pine, 
the yellowing ash, all the trees 
are gone, and I was older than 
all of them. I am older than the moon, 
than the stars that fill my plate, 
than the unseen planets that huddle 
together here at the end of a... (Read full poem)

17. The Room - written by Conrad Aiken
Read 3670 times on American Poems.

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)

As we are so wonderfully done with each other 
We can walk into our separate sleep 
on floors of music where the milkwhite cloak of childhood 
lies 

oh my love, my golden lark, my soft long doll 
Your lips have splashed my dull house with print of... (Read full poem)

19. Who were "the Father and the Son" - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1874 times on American Poems.

Who were "the Father and the Son"
We pondered when a child,
And what had they to do with us
And when portentous told

With inference appalling
By Childhood fortified
We thought, at least they are no worse
Than they have been described.

Who are "the... (Read full poem)

If a path to the Gingerbread House 
could be established by breaking crumbs
off its edifice and sprinkling them 
so as to find what lies behind us

across the featureless fairytale 
void of childhood: yet how very quick
that trick wears out when the... (Read full poem)

21. 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)

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. You - written by Russell Edson
Read 1428 times on American Poems.

Out of nothing there comes a time called childhood, which 
is simply a path leading through an archway called 
adolescence. A small town there, past the arch called youth.
  Soon, down the road, where one almost misses the life 
lived beyond the... (Read full poem)

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I... (Read full poem)

25. The Sin Of Hamlet - written by Delmore Schwartz
Read 1371 times on American Poems.

The horns in the harbor booming, vaguely,
Fog, forgotten, yesterday, conclusion,
Nostalgic, noising dim sorrow, calling
To sleep is it? I think so, and childhood,
Not the door opened and the stair descended,
The voice answered, the choice announced,... (Read full poem)