I’ve been in a book club that has read 40+ books over the last few years and I’m trying to change it up by choosing a book of poetry.
A lot of our experiences of “reading poetry” are overly analytical and stilted conversations in high school English, so I’m trying to find something that will challenge that perception of poetry.
Some books we have loved: Together, The Overstory, Jayber Crow, How the Word is Passed. We have read a mix of genres across fiction and non-fiction, but never poetry.
I recently read Above Ground by Clint Smith and loved it, but we have a rule of picking books none of us have read, so anything similar to that would be good? I particularly loved that you had to think about the collection as a whole, and not just each individual poem, so I’d prefer to avoid “best of” books by specific poets.
Open to just about all suggestions though.
by cubsfan012512
1 Comment
I’m not familiar with any of the books you’ve listed, but here are some collections that I think are good for “intro” poetry–they’re modern, with potent lines of varying rigor and plenty of empathy.
Blurbs paraphrased from the backs of the books 😅
Top 40 by Brandon Brown
“Writing through the Top 40 pop songs on the chart of September 14, 2013, Brown’s poems track the life of song as it resounds through an organisms who bathes, reads, writes, likes, fights, loves, hates, and fucks.”
Life in a Box is a Pretty Life by Dawn Lundy Martin
“Martin catalogue the harms and pleasures carried in the history of blood pooled in a “box” shared between lovers, mothers and daughters, and sisters turning to brothers. It will squat you down and make you examine all the ill-considered corners of your imaginary.”
Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
“Life on Mars is Smith’s far-ranging elegy for her father. It’s alternating cosmic breadth and intimate focus derive from the shared situation of poets and astronomers, squinting to glimpse immensity.”
Good luck on your quest! I’d love to know which book yall decide on!