It’s been a while since we did a rec list of poetry collections—and Anna took on the last two—so what better way to break up your Saturday than to sit and read a poem or few! Trust me when I say each of the collections here are ones that’ll make you feel a little hollow on finishing, in the way only the best poetry can. Or don’t trust me and read it for yourself!
As ever, the why you should read it sections have been replaced with favourite quotes.
And hey, a lot of these titles are available on Scribd, so if you want to check out that service but don’t have an account yet, use my invite code to get 2 months for free! (This also gives me one free month.)
Reckless Paper Birds
John McCullough
Goodreads
Rep: gay poet
My Favourite Quote
The day connives and you think you cannot live here,
in your body, alone and rushing forward all the time
like a silty river. All you wanted was to find a home
beside the souls of white roses and hurt no one
but the light keeps shifting.
Time is a Mother
Ocean Vuong
Goodreads
Rep: gay Vietnamese poet
My Favourite Quote
If I nationed myself
in the shadow
of a colossal waveIf only to hold on
by opening –
by kingdom comegive me this one
eighth day
let me enter
this nearly-gone yesif death enters
anything fully
without a trace
Rummage
Ife-Chudeni A. Oputa
Goodreads
Rep: Black sapphic poet
My Favourite Quote
Forgive me all the years
I called you ash; I thought
you were a tree grown
inside me the way a girl
once told me a watermelon would grow,
if I swallowed the seed
and drank from her mouth,
my body already dirt.
Autopsy
Donte Collins
Goodreads
Rep: Black nonbinary poet
My Favourite Quote
& i wish there was a soft metaphor
to lower you into this grief. insteadi will say i didn’t kill myself because
i knew my siblings couldn’t afford
another funeral. i will say each night
i dreamt of stealing back her body
not a hooked rope naively thrown toward heaven
not a bandit thieving god’s house of what belongs
to me. i mean, i grabbed a shovel.
Cenzontle
Marcelo Hernández Castillo
Goodreads
Rep: Latine queer poet
My Favourite Quote
Can you wash me without my body
coming apart in your hands?Call it wound—
Call it beginning—
Soft Science
Franny Choi
Goodreads
Rep: sapphic Asian American poet
My Favourite Quote
Here, in a seed, is a cyborg: A bleeding girl, dragging a knife through the sand.
An imaginary girl who dreams of becoming trash.Can machines think / come here let me show you / ask me again
Wanting in Arabic
Trish Salah
Goodreads
Rep: Arab Canadian trans lesbian poet
My Favourite Quote
Without land,
and your fear, you are not you
robbed of your face, spirit
and in no place to lie down, how
to turn, rise,
fly upon the moment?
We all want to be light
Know light’s plummet
Lose ground.This is to come to land.
Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers
Jake Skeets
Goodreads
Rep: Diné gay poet
My Favourite Quote
they know becoming a man
means knowing how to become charcoalstaccato of ash
holding a match to their skintrying not to light themselves on fire
Evohé
Cristina Peri Rossi
Goodreads
Rep: Uruguayan lesbian poet
My Favourite Quote
Perdí el sentido en un baile de disfraz
en que todas las mujeres cambiaron las palabras
de su apariencia,
y en la confusión,
extravié mi proprio nombre
Don’t Call Us Dead
Danez Smith
Goodreads
Rep: Black nonbinary poet
My Favourite Quote
tomorrow, i’ll have hope
tomorrow, i can shift the wreckage
& find a seed
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