Those who know me also know that poetry is my first passion. Without it, I couldn’t be a writer.
For years, I began every writing day by reading an hour or more of poetry—sometimes randomly, sometimes focusing on the poet(s) I suspected I needed most. An image, a word, an unsettling phrase … poetry always guided me through the daily portal to my own work.
Today, I’d like to share with you a few poetry books I’ve especially loved in the past year or two. It was such a pleasure to peruse my shelves and revisit them.
THE CARRYING by Ada Limón
BE WITH by Forrest Gander
GOOD STOCK, STRANGE BLOOD by Dawn Lundy Martin
POSTCOLONIAL LOVE POEM by Natalie Diaz (see Natalie read her title poem below)
DEAF REPUBLIC by Ilya Kaminsky
LIMA::LIMÓN by Natalie Scenters-Zapico
GUILLOTINE by Eduardo C. Corral
THE STRAY DOG CABARET A book of Russian poems translated by Paul Schmidt
Please feel free to post recent favorite poetry books—or links to your own poetry—on this thread.
My go tos, the ones I read over and over, are Facts for Visitors by Srkanth Reddy, Olga Broumas' Beginning with O, and Handwriting by Michael Ondaatje. I also love Perro que aulla by Sergio García Zamora , anything by Reina María Rodríguez, and, though not technically poetry but I read it as such, Eduardo Galeano's Book of Embraces.
“Blud” by Rachel McKibbens
“Next Extinct Mammal” by Ruben Quesada
“When my brother was an Aztec” by Natalie Diaz
These never fail to get me going!
My go tos, the ones I read over and over, are Facts for Visitors by Srkanth Reddy, Olga Broumas' Beginning with O, and Handwriting by Michael Ondaatje. I also love Perro que aulla by Sergio García Zamora , anything by Reina María Rodríguez, and, though not technically poetry but I read it as such, Eduardo Galeano's Book of Embraces.
How do I not know Reddy's book?! Ordering! Love all your other favorites. Thanks for chiming in here, too.
“Rift Zone” by Tess Taylor