Poetry Recommendations for National Poetry Month!
Hey hi hello friends, and welcome back to my blog!
April is National Poetry Month, so today I thought I would give you some poetry recommendations! I love reading poetry so much, it's more like having a conversation with the author than any other book in my opinion. Poetry is so personal, and can make you feel so many emotions all at once. These are just a few of my favorite poetry collections, but check out my poetry shelf on Goodreads or Storygraph for more recommendations!
==========
by Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated from the German by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
I've read a few of Rilke's books, and the Book of Hours is definitely my favorite. I feel like everyone would get something out of this collection, but it will absolutely hit different if you're Catholic or Christian. You can feel Rilke's devotion to God in every poem, it's absolutely incredible. I also have to credit the translators because they did such a wonderful job. I can read a little German so it was fascinating to compare the original to the translation.
.jpg)
by Warsan Shire
I read this last month, so if you want my full thoughts about it, you can read that here. This poetry collection is hard to read, it's dark and sad and will make you so angry that things like this happen to people. And that's why I think it's so so important. This collection is more like an experience, which is some of my favorite poetry to read, because it allows me to step into someone else's shoes and see the world through their eyes, even if it's just for a little while. If you like to annotate, get your pens and tabs ready, because this is the perfect poetry collection for annotations.
by Han Kang
Translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith
This is slightly fictional, and I would call it half poetry and half essay collection. It's not the conventional poetry collection that comes to mind, but I really enjoyed it. I read it two years ago, but I remember I really liked the concept of the collection. Each poem/essay is about another white thing you can find in nature or the home, such as eggshells, cotton sheets, things like that. It's a bit more experimental than I'm used to, but maybe I need to read more like this.
by Tracy K. Smith
This is actually the latest poetry collection that I've read (you'll see my full thoughts in this month's wrap-up). Another fictional collection, these poems explore science fiction while also touching on Tracy's personal life and her relationship with her father, who was the first to inspire Tracy to pursue the stars. So I would say this collection is half fictional and half autobiographical.
Translated from the Greek by Anne Carson
Is anyone surprised that I've added a Sappho collection to this list? If you are, you must be new! Sappho is absolutely my favorite poet, modern or ancient. I consistently dream about time traveling to ancient Lesbos and meeting her, hearing her hymns in their entirety, because only one of them survived across the centuries. Anne Carson's translation is also masterful, she keeps the cadence of the original Greek, and don't be shocked if I have a Sappho tattoo one day.
by Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman wrote this collection of poems when he was 40 years old, with no intentions of publishing them. This is because they were his personal reflections on his attraction and love for men. Today, this collection is a wonderful and passionate exploration of same-sex love, and I think it should be required reading for everyone. The edition I own is also illustrated by Brian Selznick, which adds an extra visual narrative to this poetry collection.
by Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver is the poet to read if you want nature poems. I've read three collections by her so far (Blue Horses, Dog Songs, and Thirst) but this is by far my favorite. I also recently bought a copy of Devotions, so look out for that review later this year. I read this back in 2021 so I don't remember much from it, but I do remember how it left me feeling. And that was the extreme desire to run away and live in the forest like a cryptid, so I think Mary Oliver accomplished what she set out to do with this collection.
.jpg)
by Joy McCullough
Lastly, to round out this list, I'm recommending a novel in verse. I feel like novels in verse are criminally underrated, and I aim to change that. My favorite is definitely Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough, which follows the artist Artemisia Gentilaschi as her life unfolds. Artemisia's story is a hard one to read, and I must mention the trigger warnings for this book, which include rape and sexual assault, suicidal thoughts, and intense misogyny. If you're still able to read this book, though, I highly recommend it. It will fill you with that intense feminine rage that I talk about so much (I'm pretty sure this book was the kick off of that feeling for me, actually).
==========
Those are all of the recs I have for you today! What is your favorite poetry collection? Let me know in the comments below, or DM me on Instagram (link in sidebar under heading "More Media").
Until next time!
Comments
Post a Comment