April is National Poetry Month. As someone who loves to write and read poetry, I’ve been excited for this one! Obviously, there are lots of well-loved classic poets that come to mind (for good reason)—Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Mary Oliver, Maya Angelou, and many more—all worth a read. However, I wanted to try to recommend some poets that you may not have heard of before. So, please enjoy my favorite poetry collections from authors you might not have heard of.

(In no particular order)

• All God’s Creatures and All The King’s Men by Joshua David: Have you ever squashed a spider or swatted a fly? Do you ever feel guilty after? Have you ever gone out for milk, and wondered about the life of the person standing next to you? If you spend time contemplating the philosophical within the mundane, give this book a read. This book uses a mix of poetry and prose to examine the normalcy of everyday life, while questioning morality, empathy, and happiness. David’s book is full of questions, apologies, theories, and endless intentional contradictions—even amidst existential dread, there’s still a surprising amount of comedy to be found. This book is a walk in the park one moment, and a measured response to your most dreadful questions the next. “When I was a kid, I climbed on a wall/ From way up there, I thought I saw it all/ The extent of my vision must be the whole land/ Back then I did think I saw all of God’s plan/ … /What I once thought I knew, I knew not at all/ And like my predecessor, I, too, did fall/ And oh! How I fell!/ … /My body smashed to hell/ … /Still, I lie shattered, wondering like back then/ … /If all of God’s creatures and all the king’s men, can ever put me back together again.”
• Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong: Written by a second generation Vietnamese immigrant whose grandmother survived the Vietnam war, Vuong’s poetry collection explores life for himself, his mother, and his grandmother in America. This devastating book explores gay identity, loss, nostalgia, and so much more. This book examines historical events from different perspectives—JFK’s assassination, September 11th, and of course the Vietnam war that left ripples throughout his family. This book is a brutal chronicle of a complicated family, complex history, and trauma. This book is gorgeous, soul-shattering, and mystical all at once. “…teach me/ how to hold a man the way thirst/ holds water. Let every river envy/ our mouths. Let every kiss hit the body/ like a season. Where apples thunder/ the earth with red hooves…”
• If my Body Could Speak by Blythe Baird: This collection of poetry covers growing up, eating disorders, queer identity, sexual assault, and still more in so few pages. This book is an unflinchingly honest snapshot of sickness. Baird was one of the first poets that ever stuck with me—after hearing her “When The Fat Girl Gets Skinny” (featured in this collection), as a spoken-word performance in a YouTube video. From there, I was drinking in any poem she wrote like it was water, I languished over every video featuring her, hunted down old social media posts featuring her work, spent hours on Reddit threads with people discussing the symbolism of her poems—this is when I began to pick up other poetry books, she completely changed my opinion on the genre. “‘Not everything is a poem, Blythe’,/ my mother scoffs. I laugh because I am/ certain everything is a poem if you catch it/ in just the right light, like a crystal.”
• Medusae by Theodora Sarah Abigail: This poetry book written by a Chinese-Indonesian author, is truly a love letter to womanhood, motherhood, and love itself. Using a mix of realism, symbolism, and mythology, Abigail paints us a picture of multitudes, of childhood, young love, and maternal affection. This book is also accompanied by a number of beautiful illustrations—by Nadiyah Rizki S—which truly reel you into the poetry; some poems from Medusae will stick with me until my end. This book is a snapshot of what life and love mean to Abigail, it is breathtaking in its simplicity. “A girl is born every hour./ Goodbye, says the mother./ Who are you? asks the father./ Every hour a new curse is unleashed upon the world.”
• Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman: From the writer of President Biden’s inauguration speech, renowned poet Amanda Gorman uses this book to examine grief and identity, her language is lyrical and her exigence is clear. She uses unique typography to make her poems a visual experience as well as a written one. In this collection of poetry, Gorman reminds us that we must acknowledge the issues that face our country, and the world, today, but that we must also not be afraid to have hope. Gorman’s voice is powerful in each piece—addressing gun violence, her experiences as a Black woman, her fears and hopes for the future, as well as her appreciation for the little things in life. This book reminds us to demand justice in all facets of life, so that we may receive a better tomorrow. “Since the world is round/ There is no way to walk away/ From each other, for even then/ We are coming back together.”

A good poem will stick

for a perfect stanza, word, or lyric

can be important to anyone

so, happy National Poetry Month!

This is a limerick