April is National Poetry Month! What are you reading? If you’re looking for ideas, here are some excellent poetry collections to get you started!
Citronella by Loch Baillie
Reviewed by Nicholas Selig, 2024
Part of Citronella’s success is in how it gently intertwines smell, memory, summer and queer love in a hot, languid haze punctuated by deeply intimate musings.
You Won’t Always Be This Sad by Sheree Fitch
Reviewed by Emma Rhodes, 2020
When I say I sobbed I mean I sobbed. But while Fitch breaks your heart she shows you how to mend it again, how she mended it.
The Gardener by Carrie Stanton
reviewed by Melanie Métivier, 2021
The Gardener by Carrie Stanton is a whimsical tale packed full of excitement. Written in a fun, rhyming style, readers are taken on an amusing and imaginative adventure.
Love is a Place but you Cannot Live There by Jade Wallace
Reviewed by Zoe Shaw, 2023
For lovers of haunted houses, softness, creatures, and intertexts (and haters of big cities), Love Is A Place provides sanctuary and pleasure in its pages.
Beholden: A Poem as Long as the River by Rita Wong and Fred Wah
Reviewed by Cynthia Sharp, 2022
The strength of Beholden is deeper than its technical craft — it’s honesty, letting go of preconceived ideas or assumptions, and approaching the river with humility.
Orange Kitty and the Mouse Parade by E.M Gales
Reviewed by Sue Slade, 2024
Fans of Dr. Seuss will fall instantly in love with Orange Kitty and the Mouse Parade written and illustrated by E.M Gales. Written in verse it is an adjective-rich and fun read-aloud counting book.
The All + Flesh by Brandi Bird
Reviewed by Peter Midgley, 2023
I was struck throughout by how much hope there is in Bird’s writing, and by the gorgeous and subtle ways in which they cycle back to the central ideas that bind the collection together … This is an invigorating, liberating read.
Archipelago by Laila Malik
Reviewed by Bryn Robinson, 2023
Malik weaves careful tapestries in mainly English, but also threads of Arabic and Urdu …[It’s a] necessity to read Malik’s work.