1. The Fall - written by Russell Edson
Read 2467 times on American Poems.

There was a man who found two leaves and came 
indoors holding them out saying to his parents 
that he was a tree.

  To which they said then go into the yard and do 
not grow in the living room as your roots may 
ruin the carpet.

  He said I was... (Read full poem)

One Year ago -- jots what?
God -- spell the word!  I -- can't --
Was't Grace?  Not that --
Was't Glory?  That -- will do --
Spell slower -- Glory --

Such Anniversary shall be --(Read full poem)

3. Concord Hymn - written by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Read 7399 times on American Poems.

Sung at the Completion of the Concord Monument, 
April 19th, 1836


By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since... (Read full poem)

May you find help from action figures I keep.
May you find them in the top drawer
And bring them out while you sleep
And I welcome darkness--
The flickering TV, helicopters
hopscotched overhead.

May these nightdolls help you,
When every... (Read full poem)

5. Poem (The lump of coal my parents teased) - written by William Matthews
Read 610 times on American Poems.

The lump of coal my parents teased
I'd find in my Christmas stocking
turned out each year to be an orange,
for I was their sunshine.

Now I have one C. gave me,
a dense node of sleeping fire.
I keep it where I read and write.
"You're on chummy terms... (Read full poem)

Every year without knowing it I have passed the day
When the last fires will wave to me
And the silence will set out
Tireless traveller
Like the beam of a lightless star

Then I will no longer
Find myself in life as in a strange garment
Surprised at... (Read full poem)

7. The Parent - written by Ogden Nash
Read 6862 times on American Poems.

Children aren't happy with nothing to ignore,
And that's what parents were created for.(Read full poem)

I--THE EXPLANATION

"You thought we knew," she said, "but we were wrong. 
This we can say, the rest we do not say; 
Nor do I let you throw yourself away 
Because you love me. Let us both be strong, 
And we shall find in sorrow, before long,... (Read full poem)

9. 1954 - written by Sharon Olds
Read 1926 times on American Poems.

Then dirt scared me, because of the dirt
he had put on her face. And her training bra
scared me—the newspapers, morning and evening,
kept saying it, training bra,
as if the cups of it had been calling
the breasts up—he buried her in... (Read full poem)

I was in love with anatomy
the symmetry of my body
poised for flight,
the heights it would take
over parents, lovers, a keen
riding over truth and detail.
I thought growing up would be
this rising from everything
old and earthly,
not these... (Read full poem)

11. 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)

Time collapses between the lips of strangers
my days collapse into a hollow tube 
soon implodes against now
like an iron wall
my eyes are blocked with rubble 
a smear of perspectives
blurring each horizon 
in the breathless precision of... (Read full poem)

13. Sadness - written by Donald Justice
Read 8777 times on American Poems.

1
Dear ghosts, dear presences, O my dear parents,
Why were you so sad on porches, whispering?
What great melancholies were loosed among our swings!
As before a storm one hears the leaves whispering
And marks each small change in the atmosphere,
So... (Read full poem)

WHILE deep you mourn beneath the cypress-shade
The hand of Death, and your dear daughter
laid
In dust, whose absence gives your tears to flow,
And racks your bosom with incessant woe,
Let Recollection take a tender part,
Assuage the raging... (Read full poem)

15. 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)

I Christmas Poem for Nancy

Noel, Noel
We live and we die
Between heaven and hell
Between the earth and the sky
And all shall be well
And all shall be unwell
And once again! all shall once again!
                All shall be well
By the ringing and... (Read full poem)

17. Year of Meteors, 1859 ’60. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 1711 times on American Poems.

YEAR of meteors! brooding year! 
I would bind in words retrospective, some of your deeds and signs; 
I would sing your contest for the 19th Presidentiad; 
I would sing how an old man, tall, with white hair, mounted the scaffold in Virginia; 
(I was... (Read full poem)

They called me the weakling, the simpleton,
For my brothers were strong and beautiful,
While I, the last child of parents who had aged,
Inherited only their residue of power.
But they, my brothers, were eaten up
In the fury of the flesh, which... (Read full poem)

19. X - written by Jean Valentine
Read 527 times on American Poems.

I have decorated this banner to honor my  brother. 
     Our parents did not want his name used publicly
     -- from an unnamed child's banner in the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

The boatpond, broken off, looks back at the sky.
I remember looking at you,... (Read full poem)

1

The brightly-painted horse
Had a boy's face,
And four small wheels
Under his feet,

Plus a long string
To pull him by this way and that
Across the floor,
Should you care to.

A string in-waiting
That slipped away
In many wiles
From each and every... (Read full poem)

21. On The Death Of A Young Lady Of Five Years Of Age - written by Phillis Wheatley
Read 736 times on American Poems.

FROM dark abodes to fair etherial light
Th' enraptur'd innocent has wing'd her flight;
On the kind bosom of eternal love
She finds unknown beatitude above.
This known, ye parents, nor her loss deplore,
She feels the iron hand of pain no... (Read full poem)

But if they'd give us toys and twice the stuff most
parents splurge on the average kid, orphans, I submit, need more than enough; 
in fact, stacks wrapped with our names nearly hid
the tree: these sparkling allotments yearly
guaranteed a lack... (Read full poem)

23. Yesterday - written by W.S. Merwin
Read 4487 times on American Poems.

My friend says I was not a good son
you understand
I say yes I understand

he says I did not go
to see my parents very often you know
and I say yes I know

even when I was living in the same city he says
maybe I would go there once
a month or maybe... (Read full poem)

Because finally the personal
is all that matters,
we spend years describing stones,
chairs, abandoned farmhouses—
until we're ready. Always
it's a matter of precision,
what it feels like
to kiss someone or to walk
out the door. How good it... (Read full poem)

25. Fault - written by Ronald Koertge
From Geography of the Forehead. Published in 2000. Read 488 times on American Poems.

In the airport bar, I tell my mother not to worry.
No one ever tripped and fell into the San Andreas
Fault. But as she dabs at her dry eyes, I remember
those old movies where the earth does open.

There's always one blonde entomologist,... (Read full poem)