Book Recs: Poetry Collections (I)

The title says it’s part one & that makes it seem like what should follow is “of many”, but please don’t expect this to be like a regular series. It’s more that I couldn’t decide on just ten collections and then Charlotte made me realise: I don’t have to!

So there will be more parts to this, because poetry is most of what I’m reading these days. Just, it’s gonna take time.

Some of the collections I’m gonna rec are definitely obvious choices. If you know me at all, I’m sure you can guess at least one of them. But hey, we call books classics for a reason, right?

Crush

Richard Siken
Goodreads
Rep: gay author

Why Should I Read It?

and this is the map of my heart, the landscape
after cruelty which is, of course, a garden, which is
a tenderness, which is a room, a lover saying Hold me
tight, it’s getting cold. We have not touched the stars,
nor are we forgiven, which brings us back
to the hero’s shoulders and a gentleness that comes,
not from the absence of violence, but despite
the abundance of it.

Night Sky With Exit Wounds

Ocean Vuong
Goodreads
Rep: gay Vietnamese author

Why Should I Read It?

Brooklyn’s too cold tonight
& all my friends are three years away.
My mother said I could be anything
I wanted–but I chose to live.

If Not, Winter

Sappho, trans. Anne Carson
Goodreads
Rep: sapphic author

Why Should I Read It?

]
]you will remember
]for we in our youth
did these things

yes many and beautiful things
]
]
]

Bestiary

Donika Kelly
Goodreads
Rep: lesbian Black author

Why Should I Read It?

Look, if you could bear sobriety,
you’d be sober.

If you could bear
being a person, you would no longer be
an iron bluff.

Do not wander. We are all apportioned
a certain measure of stillness.

Silverchest

Carl Phillips
Goodreads
Rep: Black gay author

Why Should I Read It?

and didn’t think what to call it, the rest
that came after, what is a thing like that worth calling: he
took me into his arms? he held me? I know longing’s
a lot like despair: both can equal everything you’ve ever
hoped for, if that’s how you want it—sure, I get that. What’s
wrong with me, I used to ask, but usually too late, and not
meaning it anyway. He touches me, or I touch him, or don’t.

Sonnets of Dark Love

Federico García Lorca, trans. Mar Escribano & Julio Viernes
Goodreads
Rep: gay Spanish author

Why Should I Read It?

This light, this fire that devours,
this gray landscape that surrounds me,
this pain that comes from one idea,
this anguish of the sky, the earth, the hour,

and this lament of blood that decorates
a pulseless lyre, a lascivious torch,
this burden of the sea that beats upon me,
this scorpion that dwells within my breast

are all a wreath of love, bed of one wounded,
where, sleepless, I dream of your presence
amid the ruins of my fallen breast.

This Way to the Sugar

Hieu Minh Nguyen
Goodreads
Rep: gay Vietnamese-American author

Why Should I Read It?

His eyes begin
to vibrate, and he doesn’t reach for me. He doesn’t

need me here, really. I am no expert, or exorcist,
or great love. I am just another boy sitting

an arm’s length away from someone he doesn’t recognize
in the light.

The Dream of a Common Language

Adrienne Rich
Goodreads
Rep: lesbian author

Why Should I Read It?

And that kind of being has other forms:
a passivity we mistake

—in the desperation of our search—
for gentleness.

But gentleness is active
gentleness swabs the crusted stump

invents more merciful instruments
to touch the wound beyond the wound

does not faint with disgust
will not be driven off

keeps bearing witness calmly
against the predator, the parasite.

Since this post was made, we have come to find out that Adrienne Rich was a TERF.

Prelude to Bruise

Saeed Jones
Goodreads
Rep: gay Black author

Why Should I Read It?

Your grief will be useful some day, says no one.

Roadside, my ear still tuned
to asphalt, its moon-crater skin,

I wait.

Nature Poem

Tommy Pico
Goodreads
Rep: gay Native American author

Why Should I Read It?

WHAT’S YR NATIONALITY!?!? This guy shouts at me during drag queen karaoke at this gay bar two stops down the line.

In order to talk about a hurricane, you first have to talk about a preexisting disturbance over the ocean, so you have to talk about mean ocean temperature, so you have to talk about human industry and sun rays, so you have to talk about helium, so did you know helium was named for the sun god Helios and was defined by a gap in the solar spectrum so literally not itself but what surrounded it, so of course we have to talk about the solar system, the Milky Way, the networks of universe and the Big Bang.

How far back do you have to go to answer any question about race?

Yes, I did swap out the Why Should I Read It section for simply quotes from the collections, because I figured: what’s better way to get you to read a poem than to give you a taste of it? Honestly, you have to like the feeling of it, not just hear me sing its praises.

Anyway, like I said, I will be back with more! Hopefully, though, you will already find some new favourites here.