Poems of Today

Robert Hayden (1962) Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached fro...

William Stafford Birds don't say it just once. If they like it they say it again. And again, every morning. I heard a bird congratulatin...

Joseph Bruchac (b. 1942) At sunset the shadows of all the trees break free and go running across the edge of the world.

Jean Valentine (2007) (For Grace Paley) The deck is big, and crowded. In one corner, an old woman, sick, on chemo, not in pain, is writing i...

William Stafford Coming down the hill into this town I tried to hold in mind the worth of your lives, to be able to help when Main Street is...

William Stafford Because it was good, we were afraid. It went down dark, dark. After a bend it was night. We didn’t tell anybody. All summer...

Theodore Roethke (1964) In a dark time, the eye begins to see, I meet my shadow in the deepening shade; I hear my echo in the echoing wood— ...