(some of) my favorite poems + select excerpts

since i'm a verified poetry nerd (according to my girlfriend) i thought i would take the time to list some of my favorite poems. only some, because i've not read everything, and more favorites are yet to come! (and some simply aren't available on poetryfoundation.org...). some of my favorite poems are Louise Gluck, Mary Oliver, Anne Carson, and Richard Siken!

If you have one appetite, he thought,

you have them all.

• "A MYTH OF DEVOTION," Louise Glück. Poems 1962-2012.

So Penelope took the hand of Odysseus,

not to hold him back but to impress

this peace on his memory:

from this point on, the silence through which you move

is my voice pursuing you.

• "Quiet Evening," Louise Glück. Poems 1962-2012.

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

     love what it loves.

• "Wild Geese," Mary Oliver.
• "October," Mary Oliver.
• "Morning," Mary Oliver.

It is too heavy, says the canvas. You lack restraint.

I was sleeping in whiteness, drifts of snow,

and you woke me and told me your dream, my blank

face upturned, listening. You came to me while we

were sleeping, we were both sleeping, and you asked me

to hold this for you. I am holding this for you.

• "Turpentine," Richard Siken. War of the Foxes.
• "Straw House, Straw Dog," Richard Siken. Crush.
• "Boot Theory," Richard Siken. Crush.

It was a November night of wind.

Leaves tore past the window.

God had the book of life open at PLEASURE

and was holding pages down in one hand

because of the wind at the door

For I made their flesh as a sieve

• "God's List of Liquids," Anne Carson.

I wish in the city of your heart

you would let me be the street

where you walk when you are most

yourself. I imagine the houses:

It has been raining, but the rain

is done and the children kept home

have begun opening their doors

• "I Wish in the City of Your Heart," Robley Wilson.

The hills step off into whiteness.

People or stars

Regard me sadly, I disappoint them.

• "Sheep in Fog," Sylvia Plath.

My own unmusical self

begins humming:

thanks for the beauty of the world.

Thanks for my life.

• "I am Standing," Mary Oliver. Evidence: Poems.