1. For The One Who Would Take Man's Life In His Hands - written by Delmore Schwartz
Read 19251 times on American Poems.

Tiger Christ unsheathed his sword,
Threw it down, became a lamb.
Swift spat upon the species, but
Took two women to his heart.
Samson who was strong as death
Paid his strength to kiss a slut.
Othello that stiff warrior
Was broken by a woman's... (Read full poem)

Poetry,
you are an electric,
a magic, field--like the space
between a sleepwalker's outheld arms!(Read full poem)

3. April 19 - written by David Lehman
Read 2902 times on American Poems.

We have too much exhibitionism 
and not enough voyeurism
in poetry we have plenty of bass
and not enough treble, more amber
beer than the frat boys can drink but
less red wine than meets the lip
in this beaker of the best Bordeaux,
too much thesis,... (Read full poem)

Poetry is a kind of lying,
necessarily. To profit the poet
or beauty. But also in
that truth may be told only so.

Those who, admirably, refuse
to falsify (as those who will not
risk pretensions) are excluded
from saying even so much.

Degas said he... (Read full poem)

5. Thing Language - written by Jack Spicer
Read 1515 times on American Poems.

This ocean, humiliating in its disguises
Tougher than anything.
No one listens to poetry. The ocean
Does not mean to be listened to. A drop
Or crash of water. It means
Nothing.
It
Is bread and butter
Pepper and salt. The death
That young men hope... (Read full poem)

I took my girlfriend to your last poetry reading,
she said.
yes, yes? I asked.
she's young and pretty, she said.
and? I asked.
she hated your
guts.
then she stretched out on the couch
and pulled off her
boots.
I don't have very good legs,
she... (Read full poem)

7. Examples (August 27) - written by David Lehman
Read 6835 times on American Poems.

The last Campbell's tomato soup can 
of the twentieth century is going to 
the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh 
That is an example of a sentence 
Another is this from a CEO in Fortune 
"You die in either case, but this way you get 
to do it... (Read full poem)

To me, a pilgrim on that journey bound 
Whose stations Beauty's bright examples are, 
As of a silken city famed afar 
Over the sands for wealth and holy ground, 
Came the report of one -- a woman crowned 
With all perfection, blemishless and... (Read full poem)

9. Sympathy - written by Eileen Myles
From American Poetry Review and Best American Poetry 2002. Read 1114 times on American Poems.

She's rubbing his shoulder
and he's reading about
Western birds. There's a scoop
of light just above my knee

it resembles the world, the one I know
a layer of smoke spread thin, a shelf

my mind returns again &
again to the picture
you gave me.... (Read full poem)

Here where the end of bone is no end of song
And the earth is bedecked with immortality
In what was poetry
And now is pride beside
And nationality,
Here is a battle with no bravery
But if the coward's tongue has gone
Swording his own lusty... (Read full poem)

11. Drunken Memories Of Anne Sexton - written by Alan Dugan
From American Poetry Review 25th Anniv. Issue. Read 896 times on American Poems.

The first and last time I met
my ex-lover Anne Sexton was at
a protest poetry reading against
some anti-constitutional war in Asia
when some academic son of a bitch,
to test her reputation as a drunk,
gave her a beer glass full of wine
after our... (Read full poem)

The riches of the poet are equal to his poetry 
His power is his left hand
      It is idle weak and precious
His poverty is his wealth, a wealth which may destroy him
   like Midas Because it is that laziness which is a form of impatience 
And this... (Read full poem)

13. Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry - written by Stephen Dunn
Read 11511 times on American Poems.

Relax. This won't last long.
Or if it does, or if the lines
make you sleepy or bored,
give in to sleep, turn on
the T.V., deal the cards.
This poem is built to withstand
such things. Its feelings
cannot be hurt. They exist 
somewhere in the... (Read full poem)

When I was lonely, I thought of death.
When I thought of death I was lonely.

I suppose this error will continue.
I shall enter each gray morning

Delighted by frost, which is death,
& the trees that stand alone in mist.

When I met my wife I... (Read full poem)

15. Dream On - written by James Tate
Read 10899 times on American Poems.

Some people go their whole lives
without ever writing a single poem.
Extraordinary people who don't hesitate
to cut somebody's heart or skull open.
They go to baseball games with the greatest of ease.
and play a few rounds of golf as if it were... (Read full poem)

it
takes
a lot of 
desperation 
dissatisfaction 
and 
disillusion 
to 
write 
a 
few
good
poems. 
it's not
for 
everybody 
either to 
write 
it 
or even to 
read
it.(Read full poem)

17. Apollo Musagete, Poetry, And The Leader Of The Muses - written by Delmore Schwartz
Read 1157 times on American Poems.

Nothing is given which is not taken.

Little or nothing is taken which is not freely desired,
       freely, truly and fully.

"You would not seek me if you had not found me": this is
       true of all that is supremely desired and admired...

"An... (Read full poem)

They lie in parallel rows,
on ice, head to tail, 
each a foot of luminosity 
barred with black bands,
which divide the scales'
radiant sections 

like seams of lead
in a Tiffany window.
Iridescent, watery 

prismatics: think abalone,
the wildly... (Read full poem)

19. To see the Summer Sky - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 35888 times on American Poems.

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie --
True Poems flee --(Read full poem)

So what use was poetry
to a white empty house?

Wolf, swan, hare,
in by the fire.

And when your tree
crashed through your house,

what use then
was all your power?

It was the use of you.
It was the flower.(Read full poem)

21. Long I Thought that Knowledge. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 11749 times on American Poems.

LONG I thought that knowledge alone would suffice me—O if I could but obtain
    knowledge! 
Then my lands engrossed me—Lands of the prairies, Ohio’s land, the southern
    savannas,
	engrossed me—For them I would live—I... (Read full poem)

Sparrows were feeding in a freezing drizzle
That while you watched turned into pieces of snow
Riding a gradient invisible
From silver aslant to random, white, and slow.

There came a moment that you couldn't tell.
And then they clearly flew instead... (Read full poem)

23. Interview - written by Dorothy Parker
From Enough Rope. Published in 1926. Read 3078 times on American Poems.

The ladies men admire, I've heard,
Would shudder at a wicked word.
Their candle gives a single light;
They'd rather stay at home at night.
They do not keep awake till three,
Nor read erotic poetry.
They never sanction the impure,
Nor recognize an... (Read full poem)

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry --
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll --
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human soul.(Read full poem)

25. In Dispraise Of Poetry - written by Jack Gilbert
From The Great Fires. Published in 1994. Read 1117 times on American Poems.

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)