April is National Poetry Month, and one of my favorite times of year to work in a library. But just because I can’t be with the physical books or share them with you doesn’t mean we can’t all experience the beauty of poetry together.
Poetry is perfect for this moment, when so many of us are finding it challenging to focus for long on any one diversion. Here are some poetry collections you can get from the library in the comfort and safety of home.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur (2014). The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look. Hailed as the poet of a generation, Kaur brings a unique viewpoint which she combines with evocative images to engage with her audience, which you can be part of in a few clicks.
Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson (2019). Inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published twenty years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless. In free verse, Anderson shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she’s never written about before. A denouncement of our society’s failures and a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #MeToo and #TimesUp, whether aloud, online, or only in their own hearts, SHOUT speaks truth to power in a loud, clear voice— and once you hear it, it is impossible to ignore.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (2014). Children and adults alike can find beauty in this poetic memoir. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world.
Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna, read by the author (2017). In poems ranging from the singsong rhythms of children’s verses to a sophisticated confessional style, Gabbie explores what it means to feel like a kid and an adult all at once, revealing her own longings, obsessions, and insecurities along the way. Adultolescence announces the arrival of a brilliant new voice with a magical ability to connect through alienation, cut to the profound with internet slang, and detonate wickedly funny jokes between moments of existential dread. You’ll turn to the last page because you get her, and you’ll return to the first because she gets you.
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein (1974). A classic of children’s poetry that’s a lifelong favorite of mine, and probably yours. You’ll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist. Shel Silverstein’s masterful collection of poems and drawings stretches the bounds of imagination and will be cherished by readers of all ages.
101 Great American Poems (2012). If variety is the spice of your life, you can’t go wrong with a compact collection of poems by assorted authors. This is a rich treasury of verse from the 19th and 20th centuries, selected for popularity and literary quality, includes Poe’s “The Raven,” Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing,” as well as poems by Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, and many other notables.
Poetry in America season 1 (2017). Finally, if you’re excited to dive in to the world of poetry but would like to watch something, here is a PBS series on the subject to keep you edu-tained. Poetry in America gathers distinguished interpreters from all walks of life to explore and debate 12 unforgettable American poems. Athletes and poets, politicians and musicians, architects, scientists, actors, entrepreneurs, and citizens of all ages join host and Harvard professor Elisa New to experience and share the power of poetry in this visually dazzling and archivally rich series.
As always, if you would like to get a library card number to use these resources, you may do so here by clicking “Create Account” in the upper right-hand corner and following the directions.
