Find Poems & Poets

Menu

ONLY poems listed here or in the current printed anthology are eligible for the 2012-2013 Poetry Out Loud competition. More information here.

Dancers Exercising

By Amy Clampitt

Frame within frame, the evolving conversation   
is dancelike, as though two could play   
at improvising snowflakes’ . . .

Danse Russe

By William Carlos Williams

If I when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping . . .

The Daring One

By Edwin Markham

I would my soul were like the bird   
That dares the vastness undeterred.   
Look, where the bluebird on the bough    . . .

The Darker Sooner

By Catherine Wing

Then came the darker sooner,
came the later lower.
We were no longer a sweeter-here . . .

The Darkling Thrush

By Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate
      When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate . . .

Dawn Chorus

By Sasha Dugdale

Every morning since the time changed
I have woken to the dawn chorus
And even before it sounded, I dreamed of it . . .

The Days Gone By

By James Whitcomb Riley

O the days gone by! O the days gone by!
The apples in the orchard, and the pathway through the rye;
The chirrup of the robin, and the whistle of the quail . . .

Deaf-Mute in the Pear Tree

By P. K. Page

His clumsy body is a golden fruit
pendulous in the pear tree
. . .

The Death of Allegory

By Billy Collins

I am wondering what became of all those tall abstractions
that used to pose, robed and statuesque, in paintings
and parade about on the pages of the Renaissance . . .

Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg

By Richard Hugo

You might come here Sunday on a whim.   
Say your life broke down. The last good kiss   
you had was years ago. You walk these streets    . . .

1 of 4