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Famous Scratches Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Scratches poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous scratches poems. These examples illustrate what a famous scratches poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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by Kees, Weldon
...r>
Insane, B. with his throat cut,
Fifteen years from now, in Omaha.

I did not know them then.
My airedale scratches at the door.
And I am back from seeing Milton Sills
And Doris Kenyon. Twelve years old.
The porchlight coming on again....Read more of this...



by Edson, Russell
...A man is bringing a cup of coffee to his face, 
tilting it to his mouth. It's historical, he thinks. 
He scratches his head: another historical event. 
He really ought to rest, he's making an awful lot of 
history this morning.
 Oh my, now he's buttering toast, another piece of 
history is being made.
 He wonders why it should have fallen on him to be 
so historical. Others probably just don't have it, 
he thinks, it is, after all, a talent....Read more of this...

by Lee, Li-Young
...e.

His five-year-old son waits in his lap.
Not the same story, Baba. A new one.
The man rubs his chin, scratches his ear.

In a room full of books in a world
of stories, he can recall
not one, and soon, he thinks, the boy
will give up on his father.

Already the man lives far ahead, he sees
the day this boy will go. Don't go!
Hear the alligator story! The angel story once more!
You love the spider story. You laugh at the spider.
Let me tel...Read more of this...

by Sexton, Anne
...hould be burnt,
I say aloud.
Man
is a bird full of mud,
I say aloud. 

And death looks on with a casual eye
and scratches his anus. 

Man with his small pink toes,
with his miraculous fingers
is not a temple
but an outhouse,
I say aloud.
Let man never again raise his teacup.
Let man never again write a book.
Let man never again put on his shoe.
Let man never again raise his eyes,
on a soft July night.
Never. Never. Never. Never....Read more of this...

by Jong, Erica
...ith our lids,
as if we would swallow each other. . .

I find you still
here beside me in bed,
(while my pen scratches the pad
& your skin glows as you read)
& my whole life so mellowed & changed

that at times I cannot remember
the crimp in my heart that brought me to you,
the pain of a marriage like an old ache,
a husband like an arthritic knuckle.

Here, living with you,
love is still the only subject that matters.
I open to you like a flowering wound,
o...Read more of this...



by Carroll, Lewis
..., go to bed! 
Go and rest your weary head." 
Thus the prudent brother said. 

"Do you want a battered hide, 
Or scratches to your face applied?" 
Thus his sister calm replied. 

"Sister, do not raise my wrath. 
I'd make you into mutton broth 
As easily as kill a moth" 

The sister raised her beaming eye 
And looked on him indignantly 
And sternly answered, "Only try!" 

Off to the cook he quickly ran. 
"Dear Cook, please lend a frying-pan 
To me as quickly...Read more of this...

by Kipling, Rudyard
...e empty skies.

So it goes they fall amid brambles,
And sting their toes on the nettle-tops,
Till, after a thousand scratches and scrambles,
They wipe their brows and the hunting stops.

Then to quiet them comes their father
And stills the riot of pain and grief,
Saying, "Little ones, go and gather
Out of my garden a cabbage-leaf.

"You will find on it whorls and clots of
Dull grey eggs that, properly fed,
Turn, by way of the worm, to lots of
Glorious butterflies ...Read more of this...

by Bishop, Elizabeth
...e deep lakes are reputed to be, 
and disused trails and mountains of rock 
and miles of burnt forests, standing in gray scratches 
like the admirable scriptures made on stones by stones-- 
and these regions now have little to say for themselves 
except in thousands of light song-sparrow songs floating upward 
freely, dispassionately, through the mist, and meshing 
in brown-wet, fine torn fish-nets. 

A small bus comes along, in up-and-down rushes, 
packed with people, eve...Read more of this...

by Masters, Edgar Lee
...nd was just a mirror 
In a rapidly flying car, 
Which catches and loses bits of the landscape. 
Then in time 
Great scratches were made on the mirror, 
Letting the outside world come in, 
And letting my inner self look out. 
For this is the birth of the soul in sorrow, 
A birth with gains and losses. 
The mind sees the world as a thing apart, 
And the soul makes the world at one with itself. 
A mirror scratched reflects no image— 
And this is the silence of wi...Read more of this...

by Eliot, T S (Thomas Stearns)
...get drilled in a regular troupe,
And they think they are smart, just to jump through a hoop."
And he'll say, as he scratches himself with his claws,
"Well, the Theatre's certainly not what it was.
These modern productions are all very well,
But there's nothing to equal, from what I hear tell,
That moment of mystery
When I made history
As Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell."...Read more of this...

by Simic, Charles
...the body
That's a stranger.
It's someone else.

We poke the same
Ugly mug 
At the world.
When I scratch
He scratches too.

There are women
Who claim to have held him.
A dog
Follows me about.
It might be his.

If I'm quiet, he's quieter.
So I forget him.
Yet, as I bend down
To tie my shoelaces,
He's standing up.

We caste a single shadow.
Whose shadow?

I'd like to say:
"He was un the beginning
And he'll be in the end,"
But one can'...Read more of this...

by Gregory, Rg
...eathing in the next room
the curtain moves and a faint light
like a living thing creeps on the bed
something - a twig - scratches on the pane
a car changes gear on a nearby hill
there is a creak in the house again
a door rattles in a hidden wind - an owl's cry
dogs barking - even a distant train - all
friendly and easy to explain
   i relax
and yawn get out and stand by the window
looking out on the soft outlines of houses
silent lawns making my own peace with night

when i r...Read more of this...

by Murray, Les
...a grin and one boot up on the rail
of possibility. It may have to leave the Earth.
Being roughly Christian, it scratches the other cheek
And thinks it unlikely. Though people have been shot for sprawl....Read more of this...

by Lowell, Amy
...simply stuns.
How low the houses seem, and all the people are 
mere flies.
That fellow pokes his hat up till it scratches on the skies.
Impudent! Audacious! But, by Jove, he blinds 
the eyes!...Read more of this...

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