Browse poems navigating and celebrating the complexities of gender and sexuality.

more poetry for teens


Taking My Father and Brother to the Frick” by Derrick Austin
Disembark the Turners seem to say…

"Queer" by Frank Bidart
Lie to yourself about this and you will...

"When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities" by Chen Chen
To be a good...

"poem in praise of menstruation" by Lucille Clifton
if there is a river...

"Autobiography of Eve" by Ansel Elkins
Wearing nothing but snakeskin...

Moon for Our Daughters” by Annie Finch
Moon that is linking our daughters’...

"He would not stay for me, and who can wonder" by A. E. Housman
He would not stay for me, and who can wonder...

Boy in a Stolen Evening Gown” by Saeed Jones
In this field of thistle, I am the improbable…

"Villanelle" by Michael Luis Medrano
Jesús José Medrano went away...

Dressing Down” by Kamilah Aisha Moon
When you’re gay in Dixie…

"All the Names We Will Not Know" by Naomi Shihab Nye
Before dawn, trembling in air down to the old river...

"The Valleys Are So Lush and Steep" by Trace Peterson
I have not been having an easy HRT experience...

Diving into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich
First having read the book of myths…

"The Anactoria Poem" by Sappho
Some say thronging cavalry, some say foot soldiers...

Her Kind” by Anne Sexton
I have gone out, a possessed witch

Self-Portrait with Sylvia Plath’s Braid” by Diane Seuss
Some women make a pilgrimage to visit it...

"Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah" by Patricia Smith
My mother scraped the name Patricia Ann from the ruins...

 “Dear Melissa—” by TC Tolbert
a curve billed thrasher…

"We Two, How Long We Were Fool'd" by Walt Whitman
We two, how long we were fool'd...


Find more poems curated by theme on our Poems for Kids page, which features many poems suitable for teen readers.

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