Poetry gives you permission to feel.
~ James Autry

Here is a collection of over 20 poems that are of both free verse and formal style. They are meant to inspire or educate in a therapeutic manner. Poems published before 1923 are of public domain, so this was honored. However, you can access modern American poetry at www.poets.org for most poems. The poems included on this website are broken down into 2 basic categories:

 

Examples of great, modern American poetry available at poets.org:

The Journey, by Mary Oliver
Kindness, by Naomi Shihab Nye
For the Record, by Adrienne Rich
The Healing Time, by Pesha Gertler
The Invitation, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Growing Light, by George Ella Lyon
somewhere i have never traveled, by e.e. cummings
Snowbound, by Natasha Lynne Bogdes
The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost
Eternal Echoes, by Mattie J.T. Stepanek
A Ritual to Read to Each Other, by William Stafford
The Negro Speaks of Rivers, by Langston Hughes