Favorite poems
“Tell me your favorite poem.”
30 answers from 27 people · Updated Sep 25, 2026
By William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
5
The peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
It brings me back to my core self, the one that knows how to heal and breathe
13
Hope (is the thing with feathers) by Emily Dickinson
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I’ve heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.
8![[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] (e.e. cummings)](https://lyric-images.gumlet.io/18c8875e-42f9-4ee7-b5f8-a769a1776eca_3000x3000.jpeg?format=auto&compress=true&q=auto&w=1200)
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] (e.e. cummings)
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) i am never without it (anywhere i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling) i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true) and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
5
Perfection as far as poems go, imho. Coconut Bear with me I want to tell you something about happiness it's hard to get at but the thing is I wasn't looking I was looking somewhere else when my son found it in the fruit section and came running holding it out in his small hands asking me what it was and could we keep it it only cost 99 cents hairy and brown hard as a rock and something swishing around inside and what on earth and where on earth and this was happiness this little ball of interest beating inside his chest this interestedness beaming out from his face pleading happiness and because I wasn't happy I said to put it back because I didn't want it because we didn't need it and because he was happy he started to cry right there in aisle five so when we got home we put it in the middle of the kitchen table and sat on either side of it and began to consider how to get inside of it
6
Cinematic and imagistic, this poem has stayed with me since I was young. It’s a welcome haunting.
1
Song of Myself (1892 version) - Walt Whitman
A poem that shows so many ways to think about the world and in so doing, so many to think about yourself. I come back to it…not nearly as often as I should, but it’s words of resonated in me ever since I first read it.
2
The first poem I ever learned by heart. My late mother, a poetry lover taught it to me. She always read us, in particular, poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. And this one brings me to a peaceful place. Afternoon On A Hill I will be the gladdest thing Under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers And not pick one. I will look at cliffs and clouds With quiet eyes, Watch the wind bow down the grass, And the grass rise. And when lights begin to show Up from the town, I will mark which must be mine, And then start down! Edna St.Vincent Millay
8
[…]my one hand holding tight my other hand; come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed. 💌
1
Denis Johnson the legend. “Loving you is every bit as fine as coming over a hill into the sun at ninety miles an hour darling…” – Denis Johnson, “Poem,” from The Veil (Alfred A. Knopf, 1985)
1
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front (Wendell Berry)
I love this for today, when we might not be quite so sure how to celebrate the 4th in this country that was born in the spirit of freedom. " Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something They will call you. When they want you To die for profit they will let you know. So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands. Give your approval to all you cannot understand. Praise ignorance, for what man has not encountered he has not destroyed. Ask the questions that have no answers. Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest. Say that the leaves are harvested when they have rotted into the mold. Call that profit. Prophesy such returns. Put your faith in the two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years. Listen to carrion – put your ear close, and hear the faint chattering Of the songs that are to come. Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts. So long as women do not go cheap for power, please women more than men. Ask yourself: Will this satisfy a woman satisfied to bear a child? Will this disturb the sleep of a woman near to giving birth? Go with your love to the fields. Lie down in the shade. Rest your head in her lap. Swear allegiance to what is nighest your thoughts. As soon as the generals and the politicos can predict the motions of your mind, lose it. Leave it as a sign to mark the false trail, the way you didn’t go. Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection."
534
If I can stop one Heart from breaking (Emily Dickinson)
If I can stop one Heart from breaking I shall not live in vain If I can ease one Life the Aching Or cool one Pain Or help one fainting Robin Unto his Nest again I shall not live in Vain.
8
On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble, may the clay dance to balance you. And when your eyes freeze behind the grey window and the ghost of loss gets into you, may a flock of colours, indigo, red, green and azure blue, come to awaken in you a meadow of delight. When the canvas frays in the currach of thought and a stain of ocean blackens beneath you, may there come across the waters a path of yellow moonlight to bring you safely home. May the nourishment of the earth be yours, may the clarity of light be yours, may the fluency of the ocean be yours, may the protection of the ancestors be yours. And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you, an invisible cloak to mind your life.
11
Spring and Fall by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Another POEM SORRY! Goth girl origin story. A reflection of my life’s deepest sorrow and most terrifying, intimate truth in someone else’s voice from 146 years ago.
Demain dès l'aube - Victor Hugo
it's the most beautiful poem about death or maybe grieving the death of you're loved one. He wrote it for his own daughter who died tragically. (The poem is in french so the traduction is maybe to litteral...) : Tomorrow at dawn Tomorrow, at dawn, when the countryside turns white, I leave. You see, I know you are waiting for me. I will go through the forest, I will go across the mountains. I cannot stay away from you any longer. I will walk with my eyes fixed on my thoughts, Without seeing anything outside, without hearing any noise, Alone, unknown, back bent, hands crossed, Sad, and the day for me will be like night. I will not watch the gold of the falling evening, Nor the sails in the distance descending towards Harfleur, And when I arrive, I'll put on your grave A bouquet of green holly and flowering heather.
3
This poem by Louis MacNeice is the first poem I read every September--haunting, beautiful, loving, descriptive--I adore it.
1
The Archipelago of Kisses (Jeffrey McDaniel)
Jeffrey McDaniel has some real gems. This one was read at my wedding 🥹
141
The description of a storm walking on legs of lightning will stay with me for a long time. This is stunning.
This poem get me every time
