1. since feeling is first... (VII) - written by e.e. cummings
Read 65999 times on American Poems.

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers.... (Read full poem)

I don't know what it is,
  but I distrust myself
  when I start to like a girl
  a lot.

  It makes me nervous.
  I don't say the right things
  or perhaps I start
  to examine,
  evaluate,
 compute
  what I am saying.

  If I say, "Do you... (Read full poem)

3. The Stand-Ins - written by Anne Sexton
Read 1607 times on American Poems.

In the dream
the swastika is neon
and flashes like a strobe light
into my eyes, all colors,
all vibrations
and I see the killer in him
and he turns on an oven,
an oven, an oven, an oven,
and on a pie plate he sticks
in my Yellow Star
and then
then... (Read full poem)

Blameless as daylight I stood looking
At a field of horses, necks bent, manes blown,
Tails streaming against the green
Backdrop of sycamores. Sun was striking
White chapel pinnacles over the roofs,
Holding the horses, the clouds, the... (Read full poem)

5. Whatif - written by Shel Silverstein
From A Light in the Attic. Published in 1981. Read 178482 times on American Poems.

Last night, while I lay thinking here,
some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I'm dumb in school?
Whatif they've closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat... (Read full poem)

And these others—what are they?
Not dolomite, sandstone, shist or calcite.
I might include ice—the colorless mineral,
if ice stayed ice.
But what is this one? Some go nameless,
do not look like their pictures.
This stingy lump, this once... (Read full poem)

7. Sentimental Moment Or Why Did The Baguette Cross The Road? - written by Robert Hershon
Published in 2000. Read 952 times on American Poems.

Don't fill up on bread
I say absent-mindedly
The servings here are huge

My son, whose hair may be
receding a bit, says
Did you really just
say that to me?

What he doesn't know
is that when we're walking
together, when we get
to the curb
I... (Read full poem)

When our cars touched
When you lifted the hood of mine
To see the intimate workings underneath,
When we were bound together
By a pulse of pure energy,
When my car like the princess
In the tale woke with a start, 
I thought why not ride the rest of... (Read full poem)

9. Baffled for just a day or two - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 5497 times on American Poems.

Baffled for just a day or two --
Embarrassed -- not afraid --
Encounter in my garden
An unexpected Maid.

She beckons, and the woods start --
She nods, and all begin --
Surely, such a country
I was never in!(Read full poem)

Out of a cell into this darkened space --
The end at twenty-five!
My tongue could not speak what stirred within me,
And the village thought me a fool.
Yet at the start there was a clear vision,
A high and urgent purpose in my soul
Which drove... (Read full poem)

11. Bohemia - written by Dorothy Parker
From Sunset Gun. Published in 1928. Read 2649 times on American Poems.

Authors and actors and artists and such
Never know nothing, and never know much.
Sculptors and singers and those of their kidney
Tell their affairs from Seattle to Sydney.
Playwrights and poets and such horses' necks
Start off from anywhere, end up... (Read full poem)

What did They do since I saw Them?
Were They industrious?
So many questions to put Them
Have I the eagerness

That could I snatch Their Faces
That could Their lips reply
Not till the last was answered
Should They start for the Sky.

Not if Their... (Read full poem)

13. What shall I do -- it whimpers so - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1573 times on American Poems.

What shall I do -- it whimpers so --
This little Hound within the Heart
All day and night with bark and start --
And yet, it will not go --
Would you untie it, were you me --
Would it stop whining -- if to Thee --
I sent it -- even now?

It should... (Read full poem)

A string of shiny days we had,
A spotless sky, a yellow sun;
And neither you nor I was sad
When that was through and done.

But when, one day, a boy comes by
And pleads me with your happiest vow,
"There was a lad I knew--" I'll sigh,
"I do not know... (Read full poem)

15. Fireflies in the Garden - written by Robert Frost
From West-Running Brook. Published in 1928. Read 10345 times on American Poems.

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can't... (Read full poem)

I will be the gladdest thing
   Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
   And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds
   With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
   And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show
   Up... (Read full poem)

17. The True Encounter - written by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Read 3308 times on American Poems.

"Wolf!" cried my cunning heart
At every sheep it spied,
And roused the countryside.

"Wolf! Wolf!"—and up would start
Good neighbours, bringing spade
And pitchfork to my aid.

At length my cry was known:
Therein lay my release.
I met the wolf... (Read full poem)

His mind of man, a secret makes
I meet him with a start
He carries a circumference
In which I have no part --

Or even if I deem I do
He otherwise may know
Impregnable to inquest
However neighborly --(Read full poem)

19. The Enemy - written by Bill Knott
Read 1744 times on American Poems.

Like everyone I demand to be
Defended unto the death of 
All who defend me, all the 
World's people I command to 
Roundabout me shield me, to 
Fight off the enemy. The 
Theory is if they all stand 
Banded together and wall me 
Safe, there's no one... (Read full poem)

There was a great cathedral.
To solemn songs,
A white procession
Moved toward the altar.
The chief man there
Was erect, and bore himself proudly.
Yet some could see him cringe,
As in a place of danger,
Throwing frightened glances into the... (Read full poem)

21. An ignorance a Sunset - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2232 times on American Poems.

An ignorance a Sunset
Confer upon the Eye --
Of Territory -- Color --
Circumference -- Decay --

Its Amber Revelation
Exhilirate -- Debase --
Omnipotence' inspection
Of Our inferior face --

And when the solemn features
Confirm -- in Victory --
We... (Read full poem)

she was hot, she was so hot
I didn't want anybody else to have her,
and if I didn't get home on time
she'd be gone, and I couldn't bear that-
I'd go mad. . .
it was foolish I know, childish,
but I was caught in it, I was caught.
I delivered all the... (Read full poem)

23. Show Biz - written by Charles Bukowski
From The Last Night of the Earth Poems. Published in 1992. Read 1808 times on American Poems.

I can't have it
and you can't have it
and we won't
get it

so don't bet on it
or even think about
it

just get out of bed
each morning

wash
shave
clothe
yourself
and go out into
it

because
outside of that
all that's left is
suicide and
madness

so... (Read full poem)

She lay as if at play
Her life had leaped away --
Intending to return --
But not so soon --

Her merry Arms, half dropt --
As if for lull of sport --
An instant had forgot --
The Trick to start --

Her dancing Eyes -- ajar --
As if their Owner... (Read full poem)

25. Sorrow - written by Edna St. Vincent Millay
From Renascence and Other Poems. Published in 1917. Read 3654 times on American Poems.

Sorrow like a ceaseless rain
   Beats upon my heart.
People twist and scream in pain,—
Dawn will find them still again;
This has neither wax nor wane,
   Neither stop nor start.

People dress and go to town;
   I sit in my chair.
All my... (Read full poem)