1. Kin - written by Carl Sandburg
From Chicago Poems. Published in 1913. Read 2440 times on American Poems.

BROTHER, I am fire
Surging under the ocean floor.
I shall never meet you, brother--
Not for years, anyhow;
Maybe thousands of years, brother.
Then I will warm you,
Hold you close, wrap you in circles,
Use you and change you--
Maybe thousands of... (Read full poem)

WANDERING oversea dreamer,
Hunting and hoarse, Oh daughter and mother,
Oh daughter of ashes and mother of blood,
Child of the hair let down, and tears,
Child of the cross in the south
And the star in the north,
Keeper of Egypt and Russia and... (Read full poem)

3. Brother of Ingots -- Ah Peru -- - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1654 times on American Poems.

Brother of Ingots -- Ah Peru --
Empty the Hearts that purchased you --

--

Sister of Ophir --
Ah, Peru --
Subtle the Sum
That purchase you --

--

Brother of Ophir
Bright Adieu,
Honor, the shortest route
To you.(Read full poem)

I had no objection at all
To selling my household effects at auction
On the village square.
It gave my beloved flock the chance
To get something which had belonged to me
For a memorial.
But that trunk which was struck off
To Burchard, the... (Read full poem)

5. He was my host -- he was my guest, - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 1937 times on American Poems.

He was my host -- he was my guest,
I never to this day
If I invited him could tell,
Or he invited me.

So infinite our intercourse
So intimate, indeed,
Analysis as capsule seemed
To keeper of the seed.(Read full poem)

Given in Marriage unto Thee
Oh thou Celestial Host --
Bride of the Father and the Son
Bride of the Holy Ghost.

Other Betrothal shall dissolve --
Wedlock of Will, decay --
Only the Keeper of this Ring
Conquer Mortality --(Read full poem)

7. Drinking While Driving - written by Raymond Carver
Read 16318 times on American Poems.

It's August and I have not 
Read a book in six months 
except something called The Retreat from Moscow
by Caulaincourt 
Nevertheless, I am happy 
Riding in a car with my brother 
and drinking from a pint of Old Crow. 
We do not have any place in... (Read full poem)

for Hayden Carruth

If you didn't see the six-legged dog,
It doesn't matter.
We did, and he mostly lay in the corner.
As for the extra legs,

One got used to them quickly
And thought of other things.
Like, what a cold, dark night
To be out at the... (Read full poem)

9. "What says the sea, little shell?" - written by Stephen Crane
From War is Kind & Other Lines. Published in 1899. Read 5094 times on American Poems.

"What says the sea, little shell?
What says the sea?
Long has our brother been silent to us,
Kept his message for the ships,
Awkward ships, stupid ships."

"The sea bids you mourn, O Pines,
Sing low in the moonlight.
He sends tale of the... (Read full poem)

We stand in the rain in a long line
waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work.
You know what work is--if you're
old enough to read this you know what
work is, although you may not do it.
Forget you. This is about waiting,
shifting from one foot to... (Read full poem)

11. A Rhyme of Death's Inn - written by Lizette Woodworth Reese
Read 2045 times on American Poems.

A rhyme of good Death's inn!
   My love came to that door;
And she had need of many things,
   The way had been so sore.

My love she lifted up her head,
   "And is there room?" said she;
"There was no room in Bethlehem's inn
   For... (Read full poem)

Down on the cathedrals, as from the Giralda
in a land no crueller, and over the walls
to domes & river look
from Great John's belfry, Ivan-Veliky,
whose thirty-one are still
to hail who storms no father's throne. Bell, book

& cradle rule,... (Read full poem)

13. Civilization -- spurns -- the Leopard! - written by Emily Dickinson
From Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Published in 1955. Read 2320 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)

Come, brother, come. Lets lift it;
come now, hewit! roll away!
Shackles fall upon the Judgment Day
But lets not wait for it. 

God's body's got a soul,
Bodies like to roll the soul,
Cant blame God if we dont roll,
Come, brother, roll,... (Read full poem)

15. Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks - written by Jane Kenyon
Read 2772 times on American Poems.

I am the blossom pressed in a book,
found again after two hundred years. . . .

I am the maker, the lover, and the keeper. . . . 

When the young girl who starves
sits down to a table
she will sit beside me. . . . 

I am food on the... (Read full poem)

Brother Paul! look!
—but he rushes to a different
window.
The moon!

I heard shrieks and thought:
What's that?

That's just Suzanne
talking to the moon!
Pounding on the window
with both fists:

     Paul!     Paul!

—and talking to the... (Read full poem)

17. The Water's Chant - written by Philip Levine
Read 543 times on American Poems.

Seven years ago I went into 
the High Sierras stunned by the desire 
to die. For hours I stared into a clear 
mountain stream that fell down 
over speckled rocks, and then I 
closed my eyes and prayed that when 
I opened them I would be gone 
and... (Read full poem)

Rearrange a "Wife's" affection!
When they dislocate my Brain!
Amputate my freckled Bosom!
Make me bearded like a man!

Blush, my spirit, in thy Fastness --
Blush, my unacknowledged clay --
Seven years of troth have taught thee
More than Wifehood... (Read full poem)

19. Judgment Day - written by Ellis Parker Butler
From The Tuscarora Club's Forty Year History. Published in 1941. Read 755 times on American Poems.

Saint Peter stood, at Heaven's gate,
All souls claims to adjudicate
Saying to some souls, "Enter in!"
"Go to Hell," to others, "you are steeped in sin."
When up from earth, with a great hubbub,
Came all the members of the Tuscarora... (Read full poem)

MANY things I might have said today.
And I kept my mouth shut.
So many times I was asked
To come and say the same things
Everybody was saying, no end
To the yes-yes, yes-yes, me-too, me-too.
  
The aprons of silence covered me.
A wire and hatch held... (Read full poem)

21. To You. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 5582 times on American Poems.

LET us twain walk aside from the rest; 
Now we are together privately, do you discard ceremony, 
Come! vouchsafe to me what has yet been vouchsafed to none—Tell me the whole story, 
Tell me what you would not tell your brother, wife, husband,... (Read full poem)

What tree may not the fig be gathered from? 	 
The grape may not be gathered from the birch?
It's all you know the grape, or know the birch.
As a girl gathered from the birch myself
Equally with my weight in grapes, one autumn,
I ought to know... (Read full poem)

23. Think of the Soul. - written by Walt Whitman
From Leaves of Grass. Published in 1900. Read 3247 times on American Poems.

THINK of the Soul; 
I swear to you that body of yours gives proportions to your Soul somehow to live in other
	spheres; 
I do not know how, but I know it is so. 
  
Think of loving and being loved; 
I swear to you, whoever you are, you can interfuse... (Read full poem)

My brother comes home from work 
and climbs the stairs to our room. 
I can hear the bed groan and his shoes drop 
one by one. You can have it, he says. 

The moonlight streams in the window 
and his unshaven face is whitened 
like the face of the... (Read full poem)

25. The Ballad Of The Children Of The Czar - written by Delmore Schwartz
Read 1947 times on American Poems.

1
        
The children of the Czar
Played with a bouncing ball

In the May morning, in the Czar's garden,
Tossing it back and forth.

It fell among the flowerbeds
Or fled to the north gate.

A daylight moon hung up
In the Western sky, bald... (Read full poem)