Dusting by Rita Dove Every day a wilderness—no shade in sight. Beulah patient among knicknacks, the solarium a rage of light, a...

I knelt for my mother at the altar. I was not greedy, never asked for a miracle. I just wanted God to give her strength and rest. Four...

Ode to the Pollo Asado Burritos from Alberto’s Tacos by Jose Hernandez Diaz I am faithful to you. Faithful, like the sun and moon. I...

Maintaining the Species by Deborah Burnham In the zoo's glass room, two dozen warblers from New Guinea hop and preen. They're ten...

And Now, Some Good News by Tristan Tuttle a cardinal lands in the trumpet vine — he whistles / a dog wearing goggles sits atop a...

Portrait of Girl with Comic Book by Phyllis McGinley Thirteen’s no age at all. Thirteen is nothing. It is not wit, or powder on the...

Anxieties by Donna Masini It’s like ants and more ants. West, east their little axes hack and tease. Your sins. Your back taxes. This is...

Spring Has Sprung by Anonymous Spring has sprung, The grass has riz, I wonder where the birdies is. They say the birdy's on the wing....

Amaryllis by Jessica Lamb I brought it home to find a blossom already come and gone in the dark box. The petals were slippery and stank...

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd by Walt Whitman 1 When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d, And the great star early droop’d in...

The Wild Horses of Chernobyl by Martha Silano I can’t stop thinking about the wild horses of Chernobyl, keep going back to the sepia...

Sonnet by Alice Notley The late Gracie Allen was a very lucid comedienne, Especially in the way that lucid means shining and bright....

Midwest by Paula Bonnell My heart is like Chicago’s Union Station. Once it was full of a thunder of arrivals, departures. In the gusty...

In Praise of Ice Cream Vending Machines at a Greyhound Bus Station by Aimee Nezhukumatathil All the buttons promise ...

Spring by Edna St. Vincent Millay To what purpose, April, do you return again? Beauty is not enough. You can no longer quiet me with the...

The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair. Dinner is a casual affair. Plain chipware on a plain...

Self-Portrait Poem That Is Also a Study by Fabienne Josaphat I see myself in her in photos, and see her in myself. Lately it seems I see...

Planetarium by Adrienne Rich Thinking of Caroline Herschel (1750—1848) astronomer, sister of William; and others. A woman in the...

There will come soft rains (War Time) by Sara Teasdale There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling...

Crossroads by Joyce Sutphen The second half of my life will be black to the white rind of the old and fading moon. The second half of my...