Search Categories - Any -25 Lines or FewerCanadaPre 21st Century21st Century Grade levels - Any -Grades 7-9 / Sec. 1-3Grades 10-12 / Sec. 4 & 5 / CEGEP 1 Sort by RandomNewestMost popularA -> ZZ -> A Apply William Blake Introduction to the Songs of Innocence Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, Susan Howe From Titian Air Vent A work of art is a world of signs, at least to the poet’s nursery bookshelf sheltered behind the artist’s ear. I recall each little motto howling its ins and outs to those of us who might as well be on the moon George Murray Cowboy Story The books sit on the shelf, a row of coma patients in a ward, a series of selves no longer able to learn and trapped at the point of injury: the last page. Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea Adam Posed Could our first father, at his toilsome plow, Thorns in his path, and labor on his brow, Clothed only in a rude, unpolished skin, Walt Whitman Beat! Beat! Drums! Beat! beat! drums! — blow! bugles! blow! Through the windows — through doors — burst like a ruthless force, Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation, Marie Annharte Baker Saskatchewan Indians Were Dancing 60s pulled us from starvation into government jobs antiquated Indians in Saskatchewan danced for rain Manitoba Indian doings were hidden for a jealous Monica Sok Self-Portrait in Siem Reap The French chef says, Try the foie gras, it’s very good. So I treat myself to the liver of a force-fed goose. Give it to me on a crostini with black currant! Spencer Butt Wrk this job hates me this job wouldn’t make me feel so shitty if it didn’t i’m nothing but nice to this job but when this job is done with me it always sneaks out while i’m still sleeping Bob Hicok Love poem The woman I love braids her hair. She’s Eve and Eve means breathe, to give life, my wife, from Eva by way of the Hebrew havah. At dusk I unlock her hair Percy Bysshe Shelley Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said — “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert.... Near them, on the sand, Lee Maracle War In my body flows the blood of Gallic Bastille stormers and the soft, gentle ways of Salish/Cree womanhood. John Donne Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow Ada Limón The Raincoat When the doctor suggested surgery and a brace for all my youngest years, my parents scrambled to take me to massage therapy, deep tissue work, osteopathy, and soon my crooked spine Shirley Camia Sorting through Documents at Dawn three crosses appear on the tv screen following a sweep of my hair that felt like your hand maybe i dreamt it but i so badly Jalal al-Din Rumi Where did the handsome beloved go? Where did the handsome beloved go? I wonder, where did that tall, shapely cypress tree go? He spread his light among us like a candle. Where did he go? So strange, where did he go without me? Ken Babstock Fire Watch Hello, listen, I’m on a field phone, do not speak until I say “over.” Repeat, don’t talk until I say “over.” Over. Do you understand, or… Raymond Antrobus Two Guns in the Sky for Daniel Harris When Daniel Harris stepped out of his car the policeman was waiting. Gun raised. I use the past tense though this is irrelevant in Daniel's language, which is sign. John Donne The Flea Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is; Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee, Lord (George Gordon) Byron She Walks in Beauty She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Molly CROSS-BLANCHARD First Time Smudge It takes eight matches, a burnt thumb, and a quick Google search to light the sweetgrass braid Mom scored for me from an elder at work. Always use matches, she said. Spirit likes matches. Oliver Wendell Holmes Old Ironsides Ay, tear her tattered ensign down! Long has it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see Kaveh Akbar How Prayer Works Tucked away in our tiny bedroom so near each other the edge of my prayer rug covered the edge of his, my brother and I prayed. We were 18 and 11 maybe, or 19 and 12. He was back from college where he built his own Noelle Kocot Paying Attention He is not doing well. She is not Alfred, Lord Tennyson Ulysses It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, John Elizabeth Stintzi America (I’m Putting My Queer Shoulder to the Wheel) The night America took off her mask we slept together poorly. I'd woken up early that Tuesday, dragged myself to a gymnasium in Jersey City to cast my vote into the void. Patricia Smith Hip-Hop Ghazal Gotta love us brown girls, munching on fat, swinging blue hips, decked out in shells and splashes, Lawdie, bringing them woo hips. As the jukebox teases, watch my sistas throat the heartbreak, e.e. cummings somewhere i have never travelled somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond any experience,your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which… CA Conrad from Sharking of the Birdcage ["the spirit of"] the spirit of your flowers is my favourite shelter we were in love is the main thing William Ernest Henley Invictus Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be Dominik Parisien Un Docteur Anglophone Traduit Les Inquiétudes De Son Patient Avec Google/An English Speaking Doctor Translates the Concerns of his Patient with Google écoute à quoi bon être poète beau dire ce mal semble dans la tête comme marteau feu enclume clou couteau ou l’éclat d’une baudroie ou des aurores boréales à la fin Andrew Marvell To His Coy Mistress Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way Harry Baker Paper People I like people. I’d like some paper people. They’d be purple paper people. Maybe pop-up purple paper people. Proper pop-up purple paper people. jaye simpson urban NDNs in the DTES had a dozen foster parents tell me to run from my mother’s truth the track marks up her arm, Queen Elizabeth I When I was Fair and Young When I was fair and young, then favor graced me. Of many was I sought their mistress for to be. But I did scorn them all and answered them therefore: Alootook Ipellie Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border It is never easy Walking with an invisible border Separating my left and right foot Lara Bozabalian The New School Do you remember, Nancy, when we sat in the Creole restaurant and glanced up at the television to see students running with their hands in the air and photographs of two young men? Chantal Gibson Veronica? What's it like at the centre of the AGO? Hmm. Imagine being coloured, drawn, and placed in a wooden frame, another hung woman, positioned Joanne Arnott world shapers creation stories are lullabies for grown-ups they remind us of all the possible ways & means that worlds… Ian Keteku Moment One I remember my birth like it was tomorrow, the unholy sensation Yone Noguchi The Poet Out of the deep and the dark, A sparkling mystery, a shape, Something perfect, Language English