Poems List
Explore poems from our collection
Jan Kubelik
Jan Kubelik
Your bow swept over a string, and a long low note quivered to the air.
(A mother of Bohemia sobs over a new child perfect learning to suck milk.) <…
Joy
Joy
Let a joy keep you.
Reach out your hands
And take it when it runs by,
As the Apache dancer
Clutches his woman.
I have seen th…
Interior
Interior
In the cool of the night time
The clocks pick off the points
And the mainsprings loosen.
They will need winding.
One of these …
It Is Much
It Is Much
Women of night life amid the lights
Where the line of your full, round throats
Matches in gleam the glint of your eyes
And the ring of y…
Ice Handler
Ice Handler
I know an ice handler who wears a flannel shirt with pearl buttons the size of a dollar,
And he lugs a hundred-pound hunk into a saloon ice-box, he…
In a Back Alley
In a Back Alley
Remembrance for a great man is this.
The newsies are pitching pennies.
And on the copper disk is the man’s face.
Dead lover of boys…
Horses and Men in Rain
Horses and Men in Rain
Let us sit by a hissing steam radiator a winter's day, gray wind pattering frozen
raindrops on the window,
And let us talk about m…
I Am The People, The Mob
I Am The People, The Mob
I Am the people--the mob--the crowd--the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is
done through me?
I am t…
Haunts
Haunts
There are places I go when I am strong.
One is a marsh pool where I used to go
with a long-ear hound-dog.
One is a wild crabapple tree…
Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio
Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio
It's a jazz affair, drum crashes and coronet razzes.
The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass snorts.
The banjo tickle…
Happiness
Happiness
I asked the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of <…
Gypsy
Gypsy
I asked a gypsy pal
To imitate an old image
And speak old wisdom.
She drew in her chin,
Made her neck and head
The top piec…
Gone
Gone
Everybody loved Chick Lorimer in our town.
Far off
Everybody loved her.
So we all love a wild girl keeping a hold
On a dream she w…
Government
Government
The Government -- I heard about the Government and
I went out to find it. I said I would look closely at
it when I saw it.
Then I …
Fog
Fog
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Follies
Follies
Shaken,
The blossoms of lilac,
And shattered,
The atoms of purple.
Green dip the leaves,
Darker the bark,
Longer th…
Fire Pages
Fire Pages
I will read ashes for you, if you ask me.
I will look on the fire and tell you from the gray lashes
And out of the red and black tongues and s…
Flanders
Flanders
Flanders, the name of a place, a country of people,
Spells itself with letters, is written in books.
"Where is Flanders?" was …
Fellow Citizens
Fellow Citizens
I drank musty ale at the Illinois Athletic Club with
the millionaire manufacturer of Green River butter
one night
And his face had …
Eleventh Avenue Racket
Eleventh Avenue Racket
There is something terrible
about a hurdy-gurdy,
a gipsy man and woman,
and a monkey in red flannel
all stopping in fr…
Dunes
Dunes
What do we see here in the sand dunes of the white moon alone with our thoughts,
Bill,
Alone with our dreams, Bill, soft as the women tying s…
Dusty Doors
Dusty Doors
Child of the Aztec gods,
how long must we listen here,
how long before we go?
The dust is deep on the lintels.
The du…
Death Snips Proud Men
Death Snips Proud Men
DEATH is stronger than all the governments because
the governments are men and men die and then
death laughs: Now you see 'em, now …
Dream Girl
Dream Girl
You will come one day in a waver of love,
Tender as dew, impetuous as rain,
The tan of the sun will be on your skin,
The purr of the bre…