Jump Cabling by Linda Pastan (published in Drive, They Said , an anthology edited by Kurt Brown, published in 1994 by Milkweed...

Despair by Anthony Hecht (published in Selected Poems , edited by J. D. McClatchy, 2012, Alfred Knopf) Sadness. The moist grey shawls...

The Patience of Ordinary Things by Pat Schneider (published in her 2019 book, From The Weight of Love , Negative Capability Press) It...

Window by Carl Sandburg Night from a railroad car window Is a great, dark, soft thing Broken across with slashes of light. I love to...

September 1, 1939 by W.H. Auden I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a...

Holding Vigil by Alison Luterman (published in Rattle , Poets Respond, on November 3, 2024 ) My cousin asks if I can describe this...

Bless This School for Girls by Warsan Shire (published in he2022 book, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head from...

Rape by Adrienne Rich There is a cop who is both prowler and father: he comes from your block, grew up with your brothers, had certain...

Sonnet 144 by William Shakespeare Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still: The better angel...

America by Claude McKay Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, Stealing my breath of...

The Halloween Party by Aidan Mathews (published in The Irish Times , October 29, 2022 ) I hoist a knitted skeleton on a drip-stand in...

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of...

Early October Snow by Robert Haight (published in his 2013 book, Feeding Wild Birds , from Mayapple Press) It will not stay. But this...

Dish of Mashed Peas by Susan Terris (published in her 2019 book, Familiar Tense , and can also be found here on her website) Some...

Every Body Lies by A.E. Hines (published in his 2021 book, Any Dumb Animal , from Main Street Rag Press) That’s what it says on her...

Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My...

Onions by William Matthews (published in his Selected Poems and Translations, 1969-1991 , Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992) How...

During an Enchantment in the Life by Brenda Hillman (published in her 2022 book, In a Few Minutes Before Later (Wesleyan University ...

Birds in Cemeteries by George Kalogeris (published in NOR 11, Spring 2012 ) It must be the shade that draws them. Or else the grass....

Marriage (motel) by Laura McCullough (published in Posit , 2018 ) Inland, just west of Atlantic City, old motels stand hunched as if...