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Contemporary Poetry Sampler

April is National Poetry Month! Here's a sampling of some of my favorite poetry books, with some favorite poems from each book to get you started.

User from Johnson County Library

15 items

  • Like A Hammer is an anthology of poems that unearths the shared traumas produced by America's incarceration system. Favorites from this book: "10 Toes Down" by Sin à Tes Souhaits, "Under Correction I" by Natalie Diaz, "Black Boy with Cow: A Still…
    Book, 20250304Haymarket Books 20250304 — XX(2016285.1)
  • Meadowlands is a modern retelling of the myth of Odysseus and Penelope, a marriage and divorce in verse. Favorites from this book: "Quiet Evening" "The Wish" "Parable of the King"
    Book, 1996Hopewell, N.J. : Ecco Press, c1996. — 811.54 Gluck
  • A haunting debut that risks the painful rewards of emotional honesty. Favorites from this book: "To My Father/To My Future Son" "Anaphora as Coping Mechanism" "A Little Closer to the Edge"
    Book, 2016Port Townsend, Washington : Copper Canyon Press, [2016] — 811.6 Vuong 08/2016
  • Devotions

    the Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

    Oliver, Mary, 1935-2019
    Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver presents a personal selection of her best work in this collection spanning more than five decades. Favorites from this book: "Wild Geese" "The Swan" "The Summer Day"
    Book, 2017New York : Penguin Press, [2017] — 811.54 Oliver
  • In these poems, the joys and struggles of the everyday are played against the grinding politics of being human. Favorites from this book: "This Morning I Pray for My Enemies" "It's Raining in Honolulu" "The First Day Without a Mother"
    Book, 2015New York : W. W. Norton & Company, [2015] — 811.54 Harjo 10/2015
  • A book of poems about how one rebuilds oneself after a heartbreak. Favorites from this book: "The Prestige" "How Can Black People Write About Flowers at a Time Like This" "It's Not Like Nicola Tesla Knew All of Those People Were Going To Die"
    Book, 2019Portland, Oregon : Tin House Books, 2019. — 811.6 Abdurraq 10/2019
  • This debut boldly confronts addiction and courses the strenuous path of recovery. Favorites from this book: "What Seems Like Joy" "Against Dying" "Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before"
    Book, 2017Farmington, Maine : Alice James Books, 2017. — 811.6 Akbar 09/2017
  • This debut leads us on an exploration to the stars and back, begging us to reconsider our boundaries of self, time, space, and knowledge. Favorites from this book: "The Moment I Saw A Pelican Devour" "Last Night I Dreamed I Made Myself" "When I Tell…
    Book, 2019Louisville, KY : Sarabande Books, [2019] — 811.6 Lewis 10/2019
  • How to Carry Water

    Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton

    Clifton, Lucille, 1936-2010
    A series of poems drawn from various collections published throughout the 40-year career of American poet Lucille Clifton. Favorites from this book: "won't you celebrate with me?" "i am running into a new year" "new bones"
    Book, 2020Rochester, NY : BOA Editions, Ltd., 2020. — 811.54 Clifton 10/2020
  • In Incarnadine, Mary Szybist restlessly seeks out places where meaning might take on new color. Favorites from this book: "To Gabriela at the Donkey Sanctuary" "Hail" "The Lushness of It"
    Book, 2013Minneapolis, Minn. : Graywolf Press, c2013. — 811.6 Szybist 02/2013
  • Everything Comes Next contains Naomi Shihab Nye's most beloved poems, as well as new, unpublished poems. Favorites from this book: "The Rider" "If the Shoe Doesn't Fit" "Mediterranean Blue"
    Book, 2020New York, NY : Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2020] — J 811.54 Nye 10/2020
  • A lush debut collection that examines what happens when we leave home and leap into the deep unknown. Favorites from this book: "An Octopus Has Three Whole Hearts" "Buttercream" "Culpable"
    Book, 2024New York : The Dial Press, [2024] — 811.6 Sullivan 05/2024
  • You Can Be the Last Leaf draws on two decades of work to present the transcendent and timely US debut of Palestinian poet Maya Abu Al-Hayyat. Favorites from this book: "You Can't" "I Suffer a Phobia Called Hope" "Revision"
    Book, 2022Minneapolis, Minnesota : Milkweed Editions, 2022. — 892.71 AbualHay 05/2022
  • Poems written out of the experience of motherhood. Favorites from this book: "Good Bones" "Heart" "Parachute"
    Book, 2017North Adams, Massachusetts : Tupelo Press, 2017. — 811.6 Smith 12/2017
  • Homie is Danez Smith's magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Favorites from this book: "jumped!" "fall poem" "old confession & new"
    Book, 2020Minneapolis, Minnesota : Graywolf Press, [2020] — 811.6 Smith 01/2020