It ain’t heavy, it’s my purse by Marge Piercy (published in her 1992 book, Mars and Her Children , Knopf) We have marsupial instincts,...

The Thing Is by Ellen Bass (published in her 2002 book, Mules of Love , BOA Editions) to love life, to love it even when you have no...

In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa by Ada Limón (published in The Best American Poetry 2024 , edited by Mary Jo Salter and David...

Without Title    for my Father who lived without ceremony by Diane Glancy (published in her 1990 book, Iron Woman , New Rivers Press)...

Shots by Belle Waring (published in her book, Dark Blonde , 1997, Sarabande Books) Three nurses to hold him, this four-year-old who...

Bird Nests Used to Look More Like Fortresses by Martin Ott (published in Press 53 , Issue 139, OCT-DEC 2018 )   My daughter just...

A Life You Might Say You Might Live by Constance Urdang (published in 100 Great Poems by Women , edited by Carolyn Kizer, 1995, The...

Curtains by Ruth Stone (published in 100 Great Poems by Women, edited by Carolyn Kizer, 1995, Ecco Press) Putting up new curtains,...

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...