For Teens

Mermaid Song by Kim Addonizio Damp-haired from the bath, you drape yourself

The Changing Light by Lawrence Ferlinghetti The changing light at San Francisco

Notes from the Other Side by Jane Kenyon I divested myself of despair

White Apples by Donald Hall when my father had been dead a week

Making a Fist by Naomi Shihab Nye For the first time, on the road north of Tampico,

Ground Swell by Mark Jarman Is nothing real but when I was fifteen,

homage to my hips by Lucille Clifton these hips are big hips.

The Pomegranate by Eavan Boland The only legend I have ever loved is

Howl, Parts I & II by Allen Ginsberg I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked

Miracle Ice Cream by Adrienne Rich Miracle's truck comes down the little avenue,

Deer Hit by Jon Loomis You're seventeen and tunnel-vision drunk,

Charlotte Brontë in Leeds Point by Stephen Dunn From her window marshland stretched for miles.

Cicada by John Blair A youngest brother turns seventeen with a click as good as a roar,

Possum Crossing by Nikki Giovanni Backing out the driveway

Sticks by Thomas Sayers Ellis My father was an enormous man

Falling by James Dickey The states when they black out and lie there rolling when they turn

Alice at Seventeen: Like a Blind Child by Darcy Cummings One summer afternoon, I learned by body

The New Higher by John Ashbery You meant more than life to me. I lived through

That Sure is My Little Dog by Eleanor Lerman Yes, indeed, that is my house that I am carrying around

The Young Man's Song by W. B. Yeats I whispered,

Ballad by Sonia Sanchez forgive me if i laugh

Who Will Know Us? by Gary Soto It is cold, bitter as a penny.

Workshop by Billy Collins I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title

Mairsy and Dosey by Sharon Olds

Persephone, Falling by Rita Dove One narcissus among the ordinary beautiful

The Fist by Derek Walcott The fist clenched round my heart...

Dangerous for Girls by Connie Voisine It was the summer of Chandra Levy, disappearing

Patience by Kay Ryan Patience is

Ave Maria by Frank O'Hara Mothers of America

Hyper- by David Baker Then a stillness descended the blue hills

A Muse by Reginald Shepherd He winds through the party like wind, one of the just who

Eating Poetry by Mark Strand Ink runs from the corners of my mouth

The Wild Iris by Louise Glück At the end of my suffering

Thanks by W. S. Merwin Listen

In Knowledge of Young Boys by Toi Derricotte i knew you before you had a mother

Lady Tactics by Anne Waldman