My Favorite Poems

My Favorite Poems

For A Five-Year-Old — Fleur Adcock

Down in the Valley — Anonymous

Ten Legs, Eight Broken — Anonymous

Untitled (“Oh Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie”) — Phillip Appleman

No Tool or Rope or Pail — Bob Arnold

Song — W. H. Auden

Who’s Who — W. H. Auden

At Last The Secret Is Out — W. H. Auden

Snowflake — William Baer

Street Ballad — George Barker

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front — Wendell Berry

The Vacation — Wendell Berry

Manners (for a Child of 1918) — Elizabeth Bishop

Proverbs of Hell — William Blake

Calling Your Father — Robert Bly

A Man in Maine — Philip Booth

First Lesson — Philip Booth

Dilemma — David Budbill

The Sixth of January — David Budbill

Con Job — Charles Bukowski

The Last Song — Charles Bukowski

Oh, Yes — Charles Bukowski

Poetry Readings — Charles Bukowski

Little Citizen, Little Survivor — Hayden Carruth

At Least — Raymond Carver

Bonnard’s Nudes — Raymond Carver

Happiness — Raymond Carver

The Waiting — Raymond Carver

My Dad’s Wallet — Raymond Carver

Internal Exile — Richard Cecil

Passengers — Billy Collins

The Parade — Billy Collins

Nightclub — Billy Collins

The Orange — Wendy Cope

Nothing is Lost — Noel Coward

Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out — Jimmie Cox

Ordinary Life — Barbara Crooker

In The Middle — Barbara Crooker

Leisure — W. H. Davies

Invitation — Carl Dennis

Untitled (“Success is counted sweetest”) — Emily Dickinson

The Yellow Slicker — Stuart Dischell

The Music One Looks Back On — Stephen Dobyns

No Map — Stephen Dobyns

For Whom The Bell Tolls — John Donne

Dawn Revisited — Rita Dove

The Unsaid — Stephen Dunn

A Secret Life — Stephen Dunn

To a Frustrated Poet — R.J. Ellmann

The Dumka — B. H. Fairchild

In Paris With You — James Fenton

Death Mask — Edward Field

My Cup — Robert Friend

Unharvested — Robet Frost

The Investment — Robert Frost

On A Tree Fallen Across The Road (To Hear Us Talk) — Robert Frost

Bunthorne's Song — W.S. Gilbert

Summer Storm — Dana Gioia

Theater — William Greenway

Routine — Arthur Guiterman

Last Days — Donald Hall

Affirmation — Donald Hall

Her Long Illness — Donald Hall

Ode to American English — Barbara Hanby

What I Want Is — C.G. Hanzlicek

Egg — C. G. Hanzlicek

Easter Morning — Jim Harrison

The Feast — Robert Hass

Those Winter Sundays — Robert Hayden

On The Strength of All Conviction and the Stamina of Love — Jennifer Michael Hecht

The Life of a Day — Tom Hennen

Soaking Up Sun — Tom Hennen

Grow Up With Me — Keaton Henson

I'm With You — Keaton Henson

The Pugilist — Keaton Henson

Polite Plea — Keaton Henson

Smoke Signals — Keaton Henson

The Sailor — Geof Hewitt

Calling Him Back From Layoff — Bob Hicok

Disappointment — Tony Hoagland

Wedding Poem for Schele and Phil — Bill Holm

The Icelandic Language — Bill Holm

In Praise of My Bed — Meredith Holmes

Into my heart an air that kills — A.E. Housman

What the Living Do — Marie Howe

For My Daughter In Reply To A Question — David Ignatow

Woolworth’s — Mark Irwin

Diner — Louis Jenkins

Parable of the Four-Poster — Erica Jong

Poems to Be Read at 3 A.M. — Donald Justice

What I Learned From My Mother — Julia Kasdorf

The Purpose of Time is to Prevent Everything From Happening At Once — X. J. Kennedy

Otherwise — Jane Kenyon

A Walk Along The Old Tracks — Robert Kinsley

Spiral Notebook — Ted Kooser

The Prodigal Son's Brother — Steve Kowit

After Love — Maxine Kumin

Morning Swim — Maxine Kumin

The Portrait — Stanley Kunitz

Sad Steps — Philip Larkin

The Trees — Philip Larkin

Alley Violinist — Robert Lax

Her Door — Mary Leader

There Comes The Strangest Moment — Kate Light

No Longer a Teenager — Gerald Locklin

The Iceberg Theory — Gerald Locklin

Where We Are — Gerald Locklin

Oh Luxury — Guy W. Longchamps

The Meeting — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Excelsior — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Wrist-Wrestling Father — Orval Lund

The Swimming Pool — Thomas Lux

Lesson of the Moth — Don Marquis

The Middle Years — Walter McDonald

Upon Hearing About The Suicide of the Daughter of Friends — Jo McDougall

The Future — Wesley McNair

Berryman — W. S. Merwin

Yesterday — W. S. Merwin

The Courage My Mother Had — Edna St. Vincent Millay

Working in the Rain — Robert Morgan

White Autumn — Robert Morgan

Late Hours — Lisel Mueller

Romantics — Lisel Mueller

Hope — Lisel Mueller

Not Only The Eskimos — Lisel Mueller

Toast — Leonard Nathan

To David, About His Education — Howard Nemerov

September, The First Day of School — Howard Nemerov

Testimonial — Harry Newman Jr.

Animals — Frank O’Hara

The Summer Camp Bus Pulls Away From the Curb — Sharon Olds

Everything — Mary Oliver

Spring — Mary Oliver

When Death Comes — Mary Oliver

Soy Beans — Thomas Allen Orr

Love Cook — Ron Padgett

Here — Grace Paley

It Is Raining On The House of Anne Frank — Linda Pastan

Weather — Linda Pastan

Instrument of Choice — Robert Phillips

The Changed Man — Robert Phillips

To Be Of Use — Marge Piercy

Sometimes — Sheenagh Pugh

Since You Asked — Lawrence Raab

My Life Before I Knew It — Lawrence Raab

Childhood — Barbara Ras

A Dialogue of Watching — Kenneth Rexroth

A Singing Voice — Kenneth Rexroth

Rules of Evidence — Lee Robinson

Susquehanna — Liz Rosenberg

A Million Young Workmen, 1915 — Carl Sandburg

Riveted — Robyn Sarah

Death and the Turtle — May Sarton

Prayer for a Marriage — Steve Scafidi

Welcome Morning — Anne Sexton

Courage — Anne Sexton

Sonnet CVI — William Shakespeare

Passing Through A Small Town — David Shumate

Teaching a Child the Art of Confession — David Shumate

High Water Mark — David Shumate

The Altar — Charles Simic

Summer Morning — Charles Simmic

Ed — Louis Simpson

The Benefits of Ignorance — Hal Sirowitz

Lending Out Books — Hal Sirowitz

Hay for the Horses — Gary Snyder

The Three Kings — Muriel Spark

At the Arraignment — Debra Spencer

A Ritual to Read to Each Other — William Stafford

Once In The Forties — William Stafford

Stepping Out Of Poetry — Gerald Stern

Where Go The Boats — Robert Louis Stevenson

Homage: Doo-Wop — Joseph Stroud

Living in the Body — Joyce Sutphen

All That Time — May Swenson

Moderation is Not a Negotiation of Intensity, But Helps Avoid Monotony — John Tagliabue

March Blizzard — John Tagliabue

Tichborne’s Elegy — Chidiock Tichborne

Rye Whiskey — Traditional

My Father Gets Up In The Middle of the Night to Watch an Old Movie — Dennis Trudell

Dogs Death — John Updike

Perfection Wasted — John Updike

Boy At The Window — Richard Wilbur

Solitude — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Poem For Emily — Miller Williams

Slow Children — Cecilia Woloch

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven — W. B. Yeats

Lester Tells of Wanda and the Big Snow — Paul Zimmer

I Met At Eve — Walter De La Mare

Love Song — Rainer Maria Rilke

This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin

“Where does such tenderness come from?” — Marina Tsvetaeva

Miss you. Would like to take a walk with you. — Gabrielle Calvocoressi

One Art — Elizabeth Bishop

The Thing Is — Ellen Bass

Here and Now — Peter Balakian

The Laughing Heart — Charles Bukowski