With April being National Poetry Month, I thought I’d share some of my favorite works of poetry with you. Each one contains accessible poems for the never to occasional to ‘I read them all the time’ poem reader.
Anything and everything by Billy Collins. Billy Collins is probably one of the most beloved American modern poets. His poetry often carries a light-hearted humor to it, making it very enjoyable and accessible. I also recommend the Poetry 180 anthologies compiled by Collins, which were created with the primary purpose of introducing a poem a day to young people in the classroom.
Alive Together: New and Selected Poems by Liesl Mueller
Alive Together won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1997 and is a beautiful collection of poems.
The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry, sigh.
If you want to get in touch with Mother Earth and her beauty or have a special someone you’re aiming to woo, look to Wendell for assistance, you won’t be disappointed.
Claiming the Spirit Within: A Sourcebook of Women’s Poetry, edited by Marilyn Sewell
I don’t know where I initially heard about this book, my copy is a used one I bought online from a library. It’s primarily intended to be for women as it specifically deals with women’s issues. It’s fantastic and one of my very favorite anthologies. All the poems are written by women, many of them the most popular, well-known women poets of our time.
The Best American Poetry 2015, Series Editor David Lehman
Each year David Lehman, along with a guest editor go through the troves of poetry that has been published that calendar and pick what they think is the best from all of it. If you have a favorite poet, I suggest seeing if they have acted as guest editor, and start there.
The Poets Laureate Anthology,
edited by Elizabeth Hun Schmidt
Did you know that each year the Librarian of Congress appoints a consultant in poetry? This person serves as the nation’s official poet. This anthology has a brief introduction to each Poet Laureate America has had and a few pages of their works.
Good Poems
, selected by Garrison Keillor
This selection is for all of the NPR fans out there. In this anthology of poetry, Garrison Keillor has selected some of his favorite poems that were read over the air on The Writers Almanac. The poems cover a variety of different topics that are common to the human experience.
