Browse poems about human rights, protest, social justice, and contemporary and historical political climates.
“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history...
“[we fight back to control the outside]” by kari edwards
again, playing with fire…
“The Republic of Poetry” by Martín Espada
In the republic of poetry…
“A Small Needful Fact” by Ross Gay
Is that Eric Garner worked…
“I, Too” by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America…
“America” by Claude McKay
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness....
“The Iraqi Nights” by Dunya Mikhail
In Iraq, after a thousand and one nights…
“Red Brocade” by Naomi Shihab Nye
The Arabs used to say…
“Ghazal: America the Beautiful” by Alicia Ostriker
Do you remember our earnestness our sincerity…
“Long Night Full Moon” by D. A. Powell
You only watch the news to find out…
from Citizen, VI by Claudia Rankine
On the train the woman standing...
“The Border: A Double Sonnet” by Alberto Ríos
The border is a line that birds cannot see...
“juxtaposing the black boy & the bullet” by Danez Smith
one is hard and the other tried to be…
“Good Bones” by Maggie Smith
Life is short, though I keep this from my children…
from WHEREAS [“Whereas when offered…”] by Layli Long Soldier
Whereas when offered an apology I watch…
“Praxis” by Wendy Xi
I had put down in writing my fear of the war…
Find more poems curated by theme on our Poems for Kids page, which features many poems suitable for teen readers.