Best Poetry Books

Citizen is a powerful book that tackles the subject of race in today's society. It recounts various racial encounters and aggressions that happen in everyday life and in the media. Claudia Rankine's work is an essay, image, and poetry-based meditation on belonging, citizenship, and the individual and collective effects of racism.

"Magical Negro" is a powerful collection of American poems that serve as an archive of Black everyday experiences, a catalog of contemporary folk heroes, and an ethnography of ancestral grief. The poems connect themes of displacement, grief, ancestral trauma, and objectification while exploring and troubling tropes and stereotypes of Black Americans. With a primary focus on depictions of Black womanhood, this collection tackles interior and exterior politics, of both the individual and the collective experience. "Magical Negro" creates a space for witness, airing grievances, pointing out patterns, and living documents that capture timeless Black melancholies and triumphs.

Experience the imaginative world of Shel Silverstein's classic poetry collection, Where the Sidewalk Ends. Meet a boy who turns into a TV set, a whale-eating girl, and other fascinating characters. The poems are both outrageously funny and profound, making it a beloved book for generations. With its excellent sense of rhymes and alliteration, this masterful collection is a pleasure to read aloud, making it one of Parent & Child magazine's 100 Greatest Books for Kids. Join the delightful adventure of Where the Sidewalk Ends and discover why Silverstein's unique creativity has captivated readers for decades.

This award-winning poetry collection by a groundbreaking author explores urgent subjects such as violence against black men and the afterlife they deserve. The book also touches on issues of desire and mortality, including the dangers of living in a body with a diagnosis of HIV positive. Through deft lyrics and performative power, the author confronts America on issues of race, grief, and the need for miracles.

This daring new book delves into the normalization of evil and its historic roots. The author asks important questions about safety, freedom, and our nation through breathtaking poetry focusing on fatherhood, legacy, blackness, queerness, worship, and trauma. The use of sonnets, ghazals, and blues display the author's formal skill while exploring the terrors we've become accustomed to and celebrating how we survive. The Tradition is a cutting and necessary collection that celebrates the contradictions of humanity.

Explore the beauty of nature and the connections between all living things with this stunning collection of over 200 poems by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver. Spanning over five decades of her literary career, this carefully curated volume features Oliver's best work, arranged by the author herself. Known as "far and away, this country's best selling poet," Oliver's masterful verse will leave you feeling inspired and enlightened by her passionate observations of the natural world.

This celebrated American poem broke new ground with its relaxed style and images of racial bonding and democratic togetherness. The first version of the historic volume is captured in this Anniversary Edition, including the unusual jacket and title page, exuberant preface, and twelve free-flowing, untitled poems. This must-have keepsake also includes an afterword discussing the 1855 edition in its social and cultural contexts and early responses to the volume.

Explore the candid realities of life with "Milk and Honey". This poignant collection of poetry and prose delves into painful experiences such as violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. Broken into four chapters, each section deals with a unique type of pain and healing. By finding sweetness in life's bitterness, readers are taken on a journey through the most difficult moments and come out the other side not only surviving but thriving.

"Oculus" by Sally Wen Mao is a powerful collection of poems exploring themes of exile, technology, and the violence of the spectacle. Through haunting and imaginative pieces, Mao delves into a range of topics including robot culture, electronic waste, and the complex roles that women of color are forced to endure. The collection also features a unique sequence narrated by film legend Anna May Wong, who journeys through the history of cinema with a time machine. With sharp wit and a speculative imagination, "Oculus" confronts the paradoxes of being seen and the effects of technology on contemporary society.

Soft Science is a thought-provoking exploration of queer, Asian American femininity that tackles questions about identity and consciousness in a world of artificial intelligence and automation. The Turing Test-inspired poems delve into the intersections of technology, violence, gender, and loneliness, as readers ponder how to remain tender and feeling in the face of a violent world.