I read a lot of poetry this summer and it was awesome. As a poet, it’s important for me to read other poets as a way to inspire myself to write. Each book I read was more moving and powerful than the last. Seriously, I had a great time. Here’s a list of my favorites selected from the large pile of books next to my bed. Seriously, if you’re a poet or just someone who likes poetry, these writers are some of the best in the game and you should definitely drop everything and read them right now. Every person on this list has influenced me as a writer in some way. These poets are proof that poetry takes courage and they showcase all the ways poetry is capable of changing the world and inspiring generations and, most of all, that some of the best poetry ever written is being produced right now, right under our noses.
1. Said the Manic to the Muse – Jeanann Verlee
“Say it plain. Say it outright. Alone. Don’t get poetic.
Say I. Say me. Say I am alone. Say your age, she says.”
Verlee writes with such a brutal honesty that it will make you ache for things you never had. Every word in this book is raw and heaving, every poem a skillfully crafted living thing. Said the Manic to the Muse is about survival, about living, about being beaten bloody and picking yourself back up.
2. The Dogs I Have Kissed – Trista Mateer
“I don’t know what it is in me that yearns to be the lifeboat
that people throw themselves at when they are drowning.”
Mateer shows the reader all the ways poetry can be a confessional. She lays everything out on the table for us to see. Nothing is off limits. The Dogs I Have Kissed is strangely comforting and absolutely painful. This book had every hair on my body standing on end.
3. I Wrote This For You and Only You – PLEASEFINDTHIS
“The scariest thing you can think of is giving up the thing that kills you. The thing you can’t live without.”
I’m a big believer in signs. When I found this book I was in desperate need of some direction and it essentially fell into my lap. Maybe it’s corny, but this is a wonderful little book with a mix of photography and poetry that will really make you think about your life and your place in everything. Don’t go looking for this book. Let it come to you. You won’t regret it.
4. No Matter the Wreckage – Sarah Kay
“Poor Kansas. All cornfields and skyworks. All apple pie. Nobody to notice if it’s missing. Just all that open space to grow in.”
Throughout this collection, Kay presents us with one gentle and humble truth after another. I read this book on the beach and cried. No Matter the Wreckage is the shore coming up to kiss your feet. It is rain in your shoes. It is the light sunburn on your nose. This book makes you hope for something and truly lives up to its title.
5. The Crown Ain’t Worth Much – Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
"There are ten different ways to say sunset. The bartender says my face is wearing all of them."
Willis-Abdurraqib builds a breathtaking landscape out of memory in his debut collection—it’s quiet yet powerful and never stops being beautiful. Each poem flows in and out of the other to create one whole incredible story of boyhood and mothers and home and music. With this book, Willis-Abdurraqib has been added to my list of Influential Poets. Hands down one of the best poetry books I’ve ever read. It makes me want to write wistful odes to my youth and I'm barely 21. Absolutely brilliant.
6. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth – Warsan Shire
“When I meet others like me I recognize the longing, the missing, the memory of ash on their faces. No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.”
Lyrical and at times disturbing, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth is a fearless exploration of the poet’s cultural identity, family, motherhood, and home packed into just 34 pages.
7. Night Sky With Exit Wounds – Ocean Vuong
“The most beautiful part of your body is wherever your mother’s shadow falls.”
Vuong’s poetry is like wind chimes in a storm, like digging blind beneath the waves and coming up with handfuls of sand and shells, like a choir in an empty church. It is the truth, plain and simple. Vuong writes about family, war, grief and love with such elegance you won’t believe it when you’ve finally read the last word. Highly recommended.
