Poem archive
Read poems by Arizona and Southwestern writers, plus classic work preserved in the AZPoetry literary archive.
Search by poem title, poet, or a phrase you remember. Each archive page is designed to lead readers toward more poets and related work.
2026
“FAILURE TO LEAVE PHOENIX IN ORDER TO SAVE MY LIFE IN THE SUMMER OF 1968” by Michael C. Ford is a poem centered on arizona, place and geography, memory. Its imagery is anchored in Arizona, Tucson. The poem develops its subject through recurring images and shifts in emotional pressure rather than reducing the experience to a single statement.
2026
“Gentle Reminders” by Jimmie Ware is a poem centered on arizona, family, identity. Its imagery is anchored in Phoenix. The poem develops its subject through recurring images and shifts in emotional pressure rather than reducing the experience to a single statement.
2026
“How the Lightning Sings” by Aaron Hopkins-Johnson is a poem centered on arizona, place and geography, memory. The poem develops its subject through recurring images and shifts in emotional pressure rather than reducing the experience to a single statement.
2026
“The Things That Break While Moving” by Aaron Hopkins-Johnson is a poem centered on arizona, place and geography, love and relationships. Its imagery is anchored in Phoenix. The poem develops its subject through recurring images and shifts in emotional pressure rather than reducing the experience to a single statement.
2026
“Charlie Brown” by Aaron Hopkins-Johnson is a poem centered on arizona, music, identity. Its imagery is anchored in Phoenix. The poem develops its subject through recurring images and shifts in emotional pressure rather than reducing the experience to a single statement.
2026
“Gunslingers” by Skyelyn Riggs-Davis taking your place across from me. Oureyes meet, hands hover over the big ironon our hips. My sister, my identical twin. You makeme feel like a…
2026
"Down Together" by Roger Clyne We could write our names here in the mudNo one's around to see themWe could hang our shoes right here in a treeNo one's around to steal them I could…
2026
"Big Iron" by Marty Robbins To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine dayHardly spoke to folks around him, didn't have too much to sayNo one dared to ask his business, no…
2026
"Running in a Red State" by Cymelle Leah Edwards Don’t be political. Sinclair Wash Trail: Anger is that which your body recognizes as alien; that which has been whittled nonexiste…
2026
"Pieces of the Night" by Doug Hopkins Well is it any wonder that the stars don't just rush byWhen you're only doin' 60 through this oh-so-vacant nightBut it's lackin' something bi…
2026
Read the poem "Burn Wall Street Burn" I watch CNBC.I read the Wall Street Journal.I check stock tickers,Study insider reports,Consult my broker on a daily basis.After careful deli…
2025
For the longest time,no one remembered how we were partners,the Good Cop and Bad Cop of Yuletide,a symphony of jingle bells and rattling chains‘ere we drove out of sight.How distu…
2025
I’m a bird.One day, the thru-hiker came byand tried guessing my name.She got it wrong. But birdbrains know how to spot beauty over faults.For the first time in my life, I didn’t w…
2025
Alas, Poor Yorick I regard the sad little manAs I stand in line at Ye Olde Churro HutWith equal measures of pity and hatredHe wears a tri-cornered, tri-colored hat that is by desi…
2025
"Haiku from Seventeen Syllables" by Hisaye Yamamoto it was so much easier to say yes, yes, even when one meant no. About the author Hisaye Yamamoto Haiku, Silence, and Struggle in…
2025
"Green & Red" by Ashley Naftule When I was six,my favorite part about eating watermelonwas harvesting the black seeds. My parents would cut off the green skinso I could slip my to…
2025
"The Vegetarian's Nightmare" a cowboy poem by Baxter Black parsley power ladies and diner and makeyou a shameful degrading confession adeed of disgrace in the name of goodtaste th…
2025
"My 20th Birthday Haiku" by Joseph Nieves When I was a boyI dreamed of being BatmanNow? Even more so. About the poet Joseph Nieves With the Phoenix Fan Fusion Nerd Poetry Slam hos…
2025
"Your Poem Is Not That Good Because (A Response)" by Christopher Fox Graham I Our poems were never that goodno one's wereor the world we talked aboutthe revolution we prophesiedwo…
2025
Behold!The laziest man in the world Damn I'm a pearlCountless bedsores adorn my soulCheck it, if you see my corpse walking round it's a hoaxCause in my head I'm at home Tomes tell…
2025
Sometimes the sun is still tryingto get to the horizonwhen a daylight moon comes up,fragile and almost transparent,the ghost of a white birdwith damaged wings,blown from its cours…
2025
"Land Alive" by David Chorlton The land isn’t empty, it’s thinking.What will it become whenthe clouds disappear and rocks take their place?Where will the roads lead when they reac…
2025
"Sonnet 18" by William Shakespeare Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer’s lease h…
2025
"The Tiger" by William Blake Tiger Tiger, burning bright,In the forests of the night;What immortal hand or eye,Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies.Bur…
2025
"The Men Who Don't Fit In" by Robert Service There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,A race that can’t stay still;So they break the hearts of kith and kin,And they roam the world…
2025
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo…
2025
"On His Blindness" or also known as "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent" John Milton, published in 1673 When I consider how my light is spentEre half my days in this dark world…
2025
"Hang On To Your Chairs (Ass Bomb)" by Bill Campana Hang on to your chairs, I'm going back to school. I'm getting my degree, a doctorate in science.I'm going to MIT to study mathe…
2025
"The Mesa Wind Blows Soft" by Colorado Pete The Mesa wind blows soft tonight,The western stars bend low,Self-shadowed in the firelightOld dreams, old visions go. The mesa wind's a…
2025
Benedicto: May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome,dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.May your rivers flow without end,meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling…
2025
"Get Back" by Paul McCartney Jojo was a man who thought he was a lonerBut he knew it couldn't lastJojo left his home in Tucson, ArizonaFor some California grass Get back, get back…
2025
"The Dude Wrangler" by Gail Gardner I'll tell you of a sad, sad story,Of how a cowboy fell from grace,Now really this is something awful,There never was so sad a case. One time I…
2025
"Arizona" by Clarence Urmy A land of mesas and of rocky spires, Of wondrous canyons and eternal fires, Of boundless spaces, mighty, grim, and grand, Where silence keeps the secret…
2025
"Night in Arizona" by Sara Teasdale The moon is a chiseled snowflake, It floats in a sky of pink, The desert is a hushed whisper, A breath of stars, I think. Cacti stand in shadow…
2025
"The Song of the Sonoran Desert" by Sharlot Madbirdth Hall Sharlot Madbirdth Hall captures the essence of the desert in her work, bringing to life its beauty and mystery. Oh, land…
2025
"Bob Dylan's 'Love and Theft' by Dom Flemons well you've heard a lot of stories I'm going to tell you one love and theft it was the 10th of September 2001 and I went to bed knowin…
2025
"A Human Heart" by Austin Davis I’m missing you,so obviously, this cloudlooks like a heart. Not the corporate, greetingcard, capitalist kind of heart,all cartoonish and fake, or t…
2025
"tombstones make macabre lawn ornaments, coffins are the worst kind of patio furniture" i saw my parents’ grave markertwice...at saint ann’s on oak street. once at my mother’s fun…
2025
Love Bacall by Lauren Perry It had to be you that threw me the matches Bogie, Each musky growl of my voice,You couldn’t resist answering my question with a flick of your wrist and…
2025
Stand Your Concession Please remember to switchall handguns to silent before shootingimpolite moviegoers for textingduring the film About the poet Shawnte Orion Shawnte Orion’s po…
2024
Chircahuas Sold A Barrel at the Gates Presidio of Tucson, May 1856 Late sun; sweatpulled from the poresby the giant sweat-eating sky.Slowly drying upthere, spirits and steel. Unde…
2024
The morning is clouded and the birds are hunched,More cold than hungry, more numb than loud, This crisp, Arizona shore, where desert meetsThe coming edge of the winter world. It i…
2024
Away up high in the Sierry Petes where the yeller Jack Pine grows tallOl’ Sandy Bob and Buster Jig had a rodeer camp last fall. Oh, They’d taken their hosses and their runnin’ iro…
2024
To bear up under loss; To fight the bitterness of defeat and the weakness of grief; To be victor over anger; To smile when tears are close; To resist disease and evil men and base…
2024
grandma and I are caught in Loops hiit's B I'm good how are you I live inLos Angeles and I love it traffic's badbut it gives me time to think my nameit's Beth I live in LA and it'…
2024
thanksgiving day november 28th, 1986 thanks for the wild turkey and passenger pigeonsdestined to be [ ] out through wholesome american guts thanks for a comment to despoil and poi…
2024
a house called tomorrow you are not 15or 12 or 17 you are a hundred wildcenturies and 15 bringing with you inevery breath and in every step everyonewho has come before you all the…
2024
Here’s what you do:You take every chance to make itNever say no to anythingIf you want itTake the minute to take that every effort‘cause chances not only comeBut they goHere’s whe…
2024
This poem was a spoken word poem, often performed in poetry slams locally, and nationally by The Klute, and various other members of the Arizona poetry community, sometimes with t…
2024
My mother used to cook for meWhich bears comment, these daysDinner was a regimental affairthroughout my teen years. Spaghetti,jarred sauce,garlic breadand bagged salad. Beef tacos…
2024
I send letters and Bottles across bodiesof water or folded up and flown over thePeaks addressed to the summer summer isa star-eyed space cadet called meStardust in the making I wr…
2024
"Hide like you are ashamed of pigment.Everyone in Cleveland loves the Indians!Like it separated you fromEveryone loves them some Indians!the norm. Love you some Indians.Tan that h…
2024
I overhear my porcelain teachers clink their teeth together like a toastin celebration of their tongues,proud to be so kind. My father borrows a name so he can feed us. I dream ab…
2024
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping…
2024
Welcome to Outside.Press START to begin.Good luck! You zone into Des Plaines, Illinois; early 2000s.The poplars rise from green plots in front of boxy houses.You watch the other p…
2024
The cactus in the desert stands Like time’s inviolate sentinel, Watching the sun-washed waste of sands Lest they their ancient secrets tell. And the lost lore of mournful lands It…
2024
Arizona Here's to the land of the rock and the cactus, The sun and the sand and the sky, Where the weather is hot and the tourists are flocking, And the cowboys are riding high. H…
2024
Deserted Deserted are the canyons, And the mesas wide and bare, The rivers run in silence, Through the lands that none may share. The peaks are wrapped in shadows, And the winds t…
2024
In the Arizona Desert In the Arizona desert, Where the sun is fierce and high, Where the purple shadows gather Underneath the cloudless sky; There the silent mountains beckon, And…
