My Favourite Poetry Collections

Since April is National Poetry Month I decided to do a post about my favourite collections! I’m definitely not an expert when it comes to poetry and a lot of things can go over my head, however that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the beauty of it. I know a lot of people are hesitant to read poetry because of various reasons (a common theme I see is because of school) but I guarantee there are so many poems out there that are nothing like the ones you were forced to study at school.

I decided to give poetry another chance because I saw this poem by Buddy Wakefield on Tumblr that I fell in love with:

I had no idea that this kind of poetry existed or that it could have such an affect on me.

I supposed my favourite style of poetry is classed as “Tumblr/Instagram Poetry” and I know it gets a lot of hate, but I think that’s so unwarranted. If it’s not your thing that’s cool a lot of traditional poetry isn’t for me, but you don’t have to be an ass about it? Anyway!!!

I wanted to share some of my favourites that I think are great places to start if you’ve never read a poetry collection before.

PSA: A lot of these collections deal with triggering things. It’s been a while since I read them so my memory is a bit foggy. I tried to remember as much as I could. Just keep that in mind if you decide to read them.

   

Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately by Alicia Cook – This collection resonated with me so much. It’s formatted to look like a mixtape and there’s a Side B which features blackout poetry of poems from Side A!

love, and you by Gretchen Gomez – The collection that my 18 year old self needed and that my current self is so happy exists. A beautiful and honest collection on how you are stronger than you think. Gretchen is part of the blogging community and I highly encourage you to go support her book. You can also see a review I wrote here.

milk and honey by Rupi Kaur – I can’t even express how beautiful Rupi’s poems are. Every single one hit me so incredibly hard. I actually wrote a review for this book which you can see here! I pretty much cried from start to finish whilst reading this. [tw: abuse, rape]

the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace – I feel like I’m repeating myself, but again this is another collection that just hit me so hard. This is super empowering and honest. [tw: abuse]  

   

Ariel by Sylvia Plath – Sylvia Plath is probably one of the only few ‘classic’ poets that I like. I really resonate with the voice she puts across because of my own personal experiences. It can’t have been easy to talk about the things she did and I really appreciate how brutally honest she is. [tw: mental illness]

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claduia Rankine – At first I struggled to connect to any of the poems in this collection, but then that made me step back and realise how privileged I am as a white person. Claudia Rankine is brilliantly unapologetic as she delivers her anger towards the injustices that black people face simply for existing.

Crush by Richard Siken – This was actually the first poetry collection I ever read. I came across it on Tumblr because everyone was using a verse from one of his poems “You Are Jeff“ for edits. I’m so glad I decided to pick it up because the poems in here are what made me fall in love with poetry. I think I’ve reread this collection like four times. [tw: rape]

A Boy Without His Feathers by Beau Taplin – I first heard of Beau because he helped write lyrics for one of my favourite Australian bands For Our Hero. I loved his lyrics so much because of their honesty (are you sensing a theme here) and how much I was able to relate. He openly spoke about his experiences with mental illness (I definitely recommending checking out their song My Revolution – tw for suicide mentions but ultimately it’s about recovery). For Our Hero broke up but I was able to met Beau and his brother Jay (who did vocals) at a show and connecting with them and speaking about how much their words helped. Unfortunately, this collection isn’t available anymore so I won’t really go into it, but it has one of my favourite openings EVER. I basically just wanted to give Beau a shout out because he has a ton of collections that are available here!! He’s also pretty active on Twitter, Instagram & Tumblr where he shares poems.

Here’s a small selection of some of my favourite poems from the collections I mentioned above! 

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Do you read Poetry? Or is it just not for you?

Let me know if you’ve read any of these or what some of your favourites are! I’m always looking for new recommendations.

I hope you’re all having a fantastic day.

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