Various Poets

Samurai Song

When I had no roof I made
Audacity my roof. When I had
No supper my eyes dined.

When I had no eyes I listened.
When I had no ears I thought.
When I had no thought I waited.

When I had no father I made
Care my father. When I had
No mother I embraced order.

When I had no friend I made
Quiet my friend. When I had no
Enemy I opposed my body.

When I had no temple I made
My voice my temple. I have
No priest, my tongue is my choir.

When I have no means fortune
Is my means. When I have
Nothing, death will be my fortune.

Need is my tactic, detachment
Is my strategy. When I had
No lover I courted my sleep.

Various Poets

Anne Sexton - The Truth the Dead Know

Frank O'Hara - As Planned

Frank O'Hara - Why I'm Not a Painter

e.e. cummings

e.e. cummings - I Carry Your Heart with Me

T.S. Eliot - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

T.S. Eliot - The Hollow Men

T.S. Eliot - The Waste Land

William Blake - London

Like, You Know - Taylor Mali

"Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa

Anodyne - Yusef Komunyakaa

Charles Bukowski - Bluebird

The Colonel - Carolyn Forche

Samurai Song - Robert Pinsky

Samurai Song

Sharon Olds - on autobiography in poetry

Poet Pages