1. Pencils - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 2065 times on American Poems.

PENCILS
telling where the wind comes from
  open a story.
  
  Pencils
telling where the wind goes
  end a story.
  
These eager pencils
come to a stop
.. only .. when the stars high over
come to a stop.
  
Out of cabalistic to-morrows
come cryptic... (Read full poem)

I been scared and battered.
My hopes the wind done scattered.
   Snow has friz me,
   Sun has baked me,

Looks like between 'em they done
   Tried to make me

Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin'--
   But I don't care!
   I'm still here!(Read full poem)

3. Clocks - written by Carl Sandburg
From Cornhuskers. Published in 1918. Read 2947 times on American Poems.

HERE is a face that says half-past seven the same way whether a murder or a wedding goes on, whether a funeral or a picnic crowd passes.
A tall one I know at the end of a hallway broods in shadows and is watching booze eat out the insides of the man... (Read full poem)

Some coffee had gotten on a man's ape. The man said, 
animal did you get on my coffee? 

No no, whistled the ape, the coffee got on me. 

You're sure you didn't spill on my coffee? said the man.

Do I look like a liquid? peeped the ape.

Well you... (Read full poem)

5. there are so many tictoc... - written by e.e. cummings
Read 6350 times on American Poems.

there are so many tictoc
    
    there are so many tictoc 
    clocks everywhere telling people 
    what toctic time it is for 
    tictic instance five toc minutes toc 
    past six tic
    
    Spring is not regulated and does 
    not get out... (Read full poem)

for David Lehman

I woke up this morning feeling
incredibly Gorky. So I made an appointment
to see my Doctorow. He said my Hemingways
looked a little swollen and sent me to
get an M.R. James and a complete Shakespeare.
By that time, I began... (Read full poem)

7. When Bells stop ringing -- Church -- begins - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1929 times on American Poems.

When Bells stop ringing -- Church -- begins
The Positive -- of Bells --
When Cogs -- stop -- that's Circumference --
The Ultimate -- of Wheels.(Read full poem)

IN the cool of the night time
The clocks pick off the points
And the mainsprings loosen.
They will need winding.
One of these days…
          they will need winding.
 
Rabelais in red boards,
Walt Whitman in green,
Hugo in ten-cent paper... (Read full poem)

9. Monosyllabic - written by Carl Sandburg
From Cornhuskers. Published in 1918. Read 1314 times on American Poems.

LET me be monosyllabic to-day, O Lord.
Yesterday I loosed a snarl of words on a fool,
        on a child.
To-day, let me be monosyllabic … a crony of old men
        who wash sunlight in their fingers and
        enjoy slow-pacing clocks.(Read full poem)

It's like the Light --
A fashionless Delight --
It's like the Bee --
A dateless -- Melody --

It's like the Woods --
Private -- Like the Breeze --
Phraseless -- yet it stirs
The proudest Trees --

It's like the Morning --
Best -- when it's done... (Read full poem)

11. If I can stop one Heart from breaking - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 13860 times on American Poems.

If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain

Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.(Read full poem)

I like to see it lap the Miles --
And lick the Valleys up --
And stop to feed itself at Tanks --
And then -- prodigious step

Around a Pile of Mountains --
And supercilious peer
In Shanties -- by the sides of Roads --
And then a Quarry pare

To fit... (Read full poem)

13. Meditation By The Stove - written by Linda Pastan
From Carnival Evening. Published in 1998. Read 920 times on American Poems.

I have banked the fires
of my body
into a small but steady blaze
here in the kitchen
where the dough has a life of its own,
breathing under its damp cloth
like a sleeping child;
where the real child plays under the table,
pretending the tablecloth... (Read full poem)

Great Streets of silence led away
To Neighborhoods of Pause --
Here was no Notice -- no Dissent
No Universe -- no laws --

By Clocks, 'twas Morning, and for Night
The Bells at Distance called --
But Epoch had no basis here
For Period exhaled.(Read full poem)

15. Village in Late Summer - written by Carl Sandburg
From Cornhuskers. Published in 1918. Read 1661 times on American Poems.

LIPS half-willing in a doorway.
Lips half-singing at a window.
Eyes half-dreaming in the walls.
Feet half-dancing in a kitchen.
Even the clocks half-yawn the hours
And the farmers make half-answers.(Read full poem)

FUCK ME
I'm all screwed up so
FUCK ME.

FUCK ME
and take out the garbage
feed the cat and FUCK ME
you can do it, I know you can.

FUCK ME
and theorize about
Sado Masochism's relationship
to classical philosophy
tell me how this stimulates
the fabric... (Read full poem)

17. Rondeau at the Train Stop - written by Erin Belieu
Read 387 times on American Poems.

It bothers me: the genital smell of the bay
drifting toward me on the T stop, the train
circling the city like a dingy, year-round
Christmas display. The Puritans were right! Sin
is everywhere in Massachusetts, hell-bound

in the population.... (Read full poem)

Because I could not stop for Death --
He kindly stopped for me --
The Carriage held but just Ourselves --
And Immortality.

We slowly drove -- He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility --

We passed the... (Read full poem)

19. Blue Maroons - written by Carl Sandburg
From Smoke and Steel. Published in 1922. Read 1520 times on American Poems.

“YOU slut,” he flung at her.
It was more than a hundred times
He had thrown it into her face
And by this time it meant nothing to her.
She said to herself upstairs sweeping,
“Clocks are to tell time with, pitchers
Hold milk, spoons... (Read full poem)

IF I should pass the tomb of Jonah
I would stop there and sit for awhile;
Because I was swallowed one time deep in the dark
And came out alive after all.
  
If I pass the burial spot of Nero
I shall say to the wind, “Well, well!”—
I... (Read full poem)

21. Night Shift - written by Sylvia Plath
Read 5234 times on American Poems.

It was not a heart, beating. 
That muted boom, that clangor 
Far off, not blood in the ears 
Drumming up and fever 

To impose on the evening. 
The noise came from outside: 
A metal detonating 
Native, evidently, to 

These stilled suburbs nobody... (Read full poem)

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
He is barking the same high, rhythmic bark
that he barks every time they leave the house.
They must switch him on on their way out.

The neighbors' dog will not stop barking.
I close all the windows in the... (Read full poem)

23. To My Little Niece Sally Livingston - written by Major Henry Livingston, Jr.
Read 460 times on American Poems.

To my little niece Sally Livingston, on the death of a little serenading wren she admired.


Hasty pilgrim stop thy pace
Turn a moment to this place
Read what pity hath erected
To a songster she respected.
Little minstrel all is o'er
Never... (Read full poem)

The Rose did caper on her cheek --
Her Bodice rose and fell --
Her pretty speech -- like drunken men --
Did stagger pitiful --

Her fingers fumbled at her work --
Her needle would not go --
What ailed so smart a little Maid --
It puzzled me to know... (Read full poem)

25. Dream Song 134: Sick at 6 & sick again at 9 - written by John Berryman
From His Toy, His Dream, His Rest. Published in 1968. Read 750 times on American Poems.

Sick at 6 & sick again at 9
was Henry's gloomy Monday morning oh.
Still he had to lecture.
They waited, his little children, for stricken Henry
to rise up yet once more again and come oh.
They figured he was a fixture,

nuts to their bolds,... (Read full poem)