Explore all poems

We Wear the Mask

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our...
        
Smart

by Shel Silverstein

My dad gave me one dollar bill
'Cause I'm his smartest son,
And I swapped it for two shiny quarters
'Cause two is more than one!

And then I took the quarters
And traded them to Lou
For three dimes -- I guess he don't...

Sunsets

by Bencity

She’s in love with sunsets
And all beautiful endings
Nature is in love with her, too
Every evening these two lovers
Stare and admire each other

Bird

by Bencity

There is a bird, on my window sill
The poor thing, has a broken wing
She can’t sing, she can’t dare fly
Look at her! Flatter, fall and fail
What would it take, to make her sail?
Will time offer her rest, and heal?
Or, have...

The World

by Bencity

Poked me once and said –
“Sing me a song!” I said
I don’t sing so well
Poked me twice and said –
“Write me a poem!” I said
I don’t write well either
Poked me thrice and said –
“Then what can you do?”
I said darling,...

One Art

by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of...

Transmute

by Bencity

Transmute; she said
Is when one thing becomes another,
A stranger to a friend
Or a man to a father
Evening to night and so on;
Hence, I understood,
That nature moves in gradual steps
And one thing becomes the...

A Malevolent Love

by Pete

It was no clean cut —
carving you out of my heart,
for you came out
with little bits of me.

But you're like a tumor,
that grows ever more
the more I cut.

But how can I keep you,
when you sting—so...

Saturday Nights

by Bencity

Saturday nights,
Always the big fight
A fight to say no
To the known;
And yes, to the unknown!

Better Man

by Bencity

Where i would have fallen,
Now I only stumble
To the brother I would have struck
I suffice with an insult

I am yet to turn the other cheek
Or take a brother the extra mile
It may only have been yesterday
When I was...

I Picked Up A Star

by Bencity

On my travels up above,
I picked up a star,
Wrestled it from its place,
And dragged it down below.
It's one thing to watch stars above,
It's another to hold them in hand.
For they burn like Sulphur;
And are big like...

I Have Brought the Sacrificial Goat

by Joy Goswami

I have brought the sacrificial goat
To the heap of grass, leaves and bark

He has forgotten his last beheading
But round his neck garland-like
hangs a mark