1. The Gift - written by Li-Young Lee
From Rose. Published in 1986. Read 3165 times on American Poems.

To pull the metal splinter from my palm
my father recited a story in a low voice.
I watched his lovely face and not the blade.
Before the story ended, he'd removed
the iron sliver I thought I'd die from.

I can't remember the tale,
but... (Read full poem)

it lay in my palm soft and trembled
as a new bird and i thought about
authority and how it always insisted
on itself, how it was master
of the man, how it measured him, never
was ignored or denied, and how it promised
there would be sweetness... (Read full poem)

3. The Space Heater - written by Sharon Olds
From The New Yorker. Read 1352 times on American Poems.

On the then-below-zero day, it was on,
near the patients' chair, the old heater
kept by the analyst's couch, at the end,
like the infant's headstone that was added near the foot
of my father's grave. And it was hot, with the almost
laughing satire... (Read full poem)

Soil of Flint, if steady tilled --
Will refund by Hand --
Seed of Palm, by Libyan Sun
Fructified in Sand --(Read full poem)

5. As Adam, Early in the Morning. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 3313 times on American Poems.

AS Adam, early in the morning, 
Walking forth from the bower, refresh’d with sleep; 
Behold me where I pass—hear my voice—approach, 
Touch me—touch the palm of your hand to my Body as I pass; 
Be not afraid of my Body.         5(Read full poem)

All that I ask, 'says Love, 'is just to stand
And gaze, unchided, deep in thy dear eyes;
For in their depths lies largest Paradise.
Yet, if perchance one pressure of thy hand
Be granted me, then joy I thought complete
Were still more... (Read full poem)

7. The Touch - written by Anne Sexton
Read 6880 times on American Poems.

For months my hand was sealed off
in a tin box. Nothing was there but the subway railings.
Perhaps it is bruised, I thought,
and that is why they have locked it up.
You could tell time by this, I thought,
like a clock, by its five knuckles
and the... (Read full poem)

My neighbor was a biker, a pusher, a dog
and wife beater.
In bad dreams I killed him

and once, in the consequential light of day,
I called the Humane Society
about Blue, his dog. They took her away

and I readied myself, a baseball bat
inside my... (Read full poem)

9. Love And Death - written by Sara Teasdale
Read 3446 times on American Poems.

Shall we, too, rise forgetful from our sleep,
And shall my soul that lies within your hand
Remember nothing, as the blowing sand
Forgets the palm where long blue shadows creep
When winds along the darkened desert sweep?

Or would it still remember,... (Read full poem)

Torn into light, you woke wriggling 
on a woman's palm. Halved, quartered, 
shredded to the wind, you were the life 
that thrilled along the underbelly 
of a stone. Stilled in the frozen pond 
you rinsed heaven with a sigh. 

How much earth is a... (Read full poem)

11. Blue Shards In Palm Of Hand - written by Stanley Gemmell
Read 735 times on American Poems.

Cimodo dragon luxuriant in purple scales
twist and sliver lashed about twitch
of Sunlight on green grass
beneath slow moving, low and compact white clouds
like drugged ships move insensibly upon massive azure

Eye of dragon to my love of the... (Read full poem)

Poetry is the supreme fiction, madame.
Take the moral law and make a nave of it
And from the nave build haunted heaven. Thus,
The conscience is converted into palms,
Like windy citherns hankering for hymns.
We agree in principle. That's clear. But... (Read full poem)

13. Ornithology for Beginners - written by Dorothy Parker
From Death and Taxes. Published in 1931. Read 4186 times on American Poems.

The bird that feeds from off my palm
Is sleek, affectionate, and calm,
But double, to me, is worth the thrush
A-flickering in the elder-bush.(Read full poem)

A LEAF for hand in hand! 
You natural persons old and young! 
You on the Mississippi, and on all the branches and bayous of the Mississippi! 
You friendly boatmen and mechanics! You roughs! 
You twain! And all processions moving along the... (Read full poem)

15. Who Bides His Time - written by James Whitcomb Riley
Read 854 times on American Poems.

Who bides his time, and day by day 
Faces defeat full patiently, 
And lifts a mirthful roundelay, 
However poor his fortunes be,-- 
He will not fail in any qualm 
Of poverty -- the paltry dime 
It will grow golden in his palm, 
Who bides his... (Read full poem)

I like to find
what's not found
at once, but lies

within something of another nature,
in repose, distinct.
Gull feathers of glass, hidden

in white pulp: the bones of squid
which I pull out and lay
blade by blade on the draining... (Read full poem)

17. The Grammar Lesson - written by Steve Kowit
From In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop. Published in 1995. Read 881 times on American Poems.

A noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does.
An adjective is what describes the noun.
In "The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"

of and with are prepositions. The's
an article, a can's a noun,
a noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does.

A... (Read full poem)

In the taxi alone, home from the airport,
I could not believe you were gone. My palm kept
creeping over the smooth plastic
to find your strong meaty little hand and
squeeze it, find your narrow thigh in the
noble ribbing of the... (Read full poem)

19. Phenomenal Woman - written by Maya Angelou
Read 171248 times on American Poems.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my... (Read full poem)

The clock of my days winds down.
The cat eats sparrows outside my window.
Once, she brought me a small rabbit
which we devoured together, under
the Empire Table
while the men shrieked
repossessing the gold umbrella.

Now the beard on my... (Read full poem)

21. Civilization -- spurns -- the Leopard! - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2326 times on American Poems.

Civilization -- spurns -- the Leopard!
Was the Leopard -- bold?
Deserts -- never rebuked her Satin --
Ethiop -- her Gold --
Tawny -- her Customs --
She was Conscious --
Spotted -- her Dun Gown --
This was the Leopard's nature -- Signor --
Need -- a... (Read full poem)

The murkiness of the local garage is not so dense
that you cannot make out the calendar of pinup
drawings on the wall above a bench of tools.
Your ears are ringing with the sound of
the mechanic hammering on your exhaust pipe,
and as you look closer... (Read full poem)

23. Valentine To The Girl In Black - written by Ellis Parker Butler
From Leslie’s Monthly. Published in 1904. Read 346 times on American Poems.

In hand I take this pen of mine
To write you, sweet, a valentine;
I’d take your dainty hand instead,
But—you’re a drawing—I am wed—
And that is why, you understand,
I only take my pen in hand.(Read full poem)

To hold a damaged sparrow
under water until you feel it die
is to know a small something
about the mind; how, for example,
it blames the cat for the original crime,
how it wants praise for its better side.

And yet it's as human
as pulling the plug... (Read full poem)

25. THE SLAVE'S DREAM - written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
From Poems on Slavery. Read 11941 times on American Poems.

Beside the ungathered rice he lay,
His sickle in his hand;
His breast was bare, his matted hair
Was buried in the sand.
Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,
He saw his Native Land.

Wide through the landscape of his dreams
The lordly Niger... (Read full poem)