21 Poems about Pens, Pencils, Paper and Life

Poets have used stationery as both means and muse for millennia.

So poems about pencils, poems about pens, paper and other writing tools would be in keeping with the romantic bent of poets and writers in general. And we love it!

Enjoy these excerpts of poems (and click through to the linked complete poems) and join us in celebrating the insightful, delightful, and humorous use of stationery in poetry.

POEMS ABOUT PENS PENCILS PAPER AND LIFE

Poems about Pencils

1. The World Is in Pencil

by Todd Boss 

“The world is in pencil
—not pen.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/55055/the-world-is-in-pencil

2. If It Had No Pencil

by Emily Dickinson 

“If it had no pencil
Would it try mine—
Worn—now—and dull—sweet,
Writing much to thee.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://www.best-poems.net/emily-dickinson/if-it-had-no-pencil.html

3. The Education of a Poet

by Leslie Monsour

“Her pencil poised, she’s ready to create,
Then listens to her mind’s perverse debate”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48492/the-education-of-a-poet

4. To a No. 2 Yellow Pencil on May 1, 2020

by Kimiko Hahn

“To see you is to smell 
your wood and lead shavings  
that spill from the gray 
metal pencil sharpener”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poets.org/poem/no-2-yellow-pencil-may-1-2020

5. Pencil

by Marianne Boruch

“My drawing teacher said: Look, think, make a mark.
Look, I told myself.
And waited to be marked.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/55555/pencil

6. I, a pencil

by Anika Aynul

“I, a pencil is considered as a worthless product,
I, a pencil isn’t worthy of people’s standards,
But I know,
I indeed am the real author of all those best-sellers,
Me, myself, I.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/i-a-pencil/

7. Outline

by Alexa Stevens

“There is a sharp sleek outline on the hallway wall,
Pretending to be a metaphor.
Graphite lines chase their way up the outline,
Pausing and dipping for moments in time.
Many have inhabited the metaphor,
Many more will.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/outline/


Poems about Pens

8. Eighteenth

by Kate Bingham

“There was a craze for fountain pens.
Fat lacquered ones, walnut-effect, gold-nibbed,
unlocked and lifted, two-handed,
from spot-lit glass cabinets and carried over plush
by silent nail-varnished assistants
to the desk where you and your mum or dad
would have been waiting almost eighteen years,
not talking much, you worrying because the pen
you liked best was also the most expensive.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/eighteenth/

9. Penning My Thoughts

by Elaine Choy

“Take it from a cup, or bag, or
maybe from behind your ear.
Press down the rounded edge,
not the opening.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/penning-my-thoughts/

10. Third Grade

by Georgia A. Popoff

“Mrs. Schneider taught the class the times tables and cursive.
For a quarter, we could purchase a green plastic ballpoint 
resembling a fountain pen, leaving pencils and erasers behind.

My fingers wrapped the pen and letters formed, fluid and full
of potential. Like tributaries. Like family. Words swift
as bike tires on hot pavement.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poets.org/poem/third-grade


Poems about Paper and Notebooks

11. Notebooks

by Allison Joseph

What good are notebooks?
—Talking Heads, “Life During Wartime”

“I crave them as if craving something carnal,
blankness of pages erotic, clean with sensual
possibilities and ready to be dampened
by my insistent ink, swirls of language

made plain on thin blue lines taut
as tightrope.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poets.org/poem/notebooks

12. Spitwads

by Michael Mcfee

“Little paper cuds we made
by ripping the corners or edges
from homework and class notes
then ruminating them into balls
we’d flick from our fingertips
or catapult with pencils
or (sometimes after lunch)
launch through striped straws
like deadly projectiles”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54561/spitwads


Poems about Erasers and Sharpeners

13. Editing the Moon

by Caroline Caddy

“Be precise
authority is magic.
When you think you’ve got it straight
wax wane declination
feel the movement under your hand”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=169

14. The Old Wooden Pencil Sharpener

by Jessica Taylor

“Lurking in the corner
inside the desk
I hide
metal teeth grating
Glorious Criminal”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/the-old-wooden-pencil-sharpener/


Poems about Life and Stationery

15. Teaching the Ape to Write Poems

by James Tate

“They didn’t have much trouble
teaching the ape to write poems:
first they strapped him into the chair,
then tied the pencil around his hand
(the paper had already been nailed down).”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poets.org/poem/teaching-ape-write-poems

16. The borders of our beings

by Stephanie Brown

“when the quiet eyed boy
who spends class scribbling
soft words onto paper meant for
diagrams and equations
who creates worlds out of pencil
and freedom from the gentle movement
of his fingers and wrist
asks “would you like to see my notebook?”
say yes”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/the-borders-of-our-beings/

17. Written Deer

by Maggie Smith

“Why does this written doe bound through these written woods?
                            —Wisława Szymborska

My handwriting is all over these woods.
No, my handwriting is these woods,
each tree a half-print, half-cursive scrawl,
each loop a limb. My house is somewhere
here, & I have scribbled myself inside it.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poets.org/poem/written-deer

18. A Teacher’s Lament

by Kalli Dakos

“Don’t tell me the cat ate your math sheet,
And your spelling words went down the drain,
And you couldn’t decipher your homework,
Because it was soaked in the rain.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46937/a-teachers-lament

19. Sappho in Her Study

by Kelly Cherry

“The files in the filing cabinet
Are all talking at once.
Mumble jumble, say the files
In the filing cabinet.

The desk, discreet,
Discloses nothing.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poets.org/poem/sappho-her-study

20. Fool’s Gold

by Ted Mathys

“I love the limited edition
Swingline gold stapler
in the oil change lounge

which can, like a poem,
affix anything to anything
on paper.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poets.org/poem/fools-gold

21. The Biology of Random Intention

by James Cagney

“Since my quilted palm was my mother’s responsibility,
I asked her what these alien letters meant.

Every origami starts with a valley or mountain fold,
she said. Yours is the mountain. Yours is a life of work.

Your hand, she said, takes the shape
of the last thing spirit reaches for in its last darkness.”

Check the full poem at the link below
https://poets.org/poem/biology-random-intention


We hope you enjoyed this poetic sojourn into stationery and poems about pencils, pens and more. If you like reading smart people talking about stationery and writing instruments, check out our various collections of quotes about stationery.

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