Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Poetry Books I Reviewed In the Past Two Years (Off-topic)
It is National Poetry Month and I always try to read a few poetry months in April. The list is made up of only books I reviewed. I am not a consistent reviewer of these books so this list might miss a few other favorite poetry books during the same time period.
Over twenty years ago poet Patricia Smith happened upon a nineteenth-century photo of a Black person in a flea market -- a dim, water-streaked image of a slyly smiling woman wearing a large hat. Smith felt distressed by the woman's silence, by the fact that her story was untold and unknown. After collecting 200 more of these cabinet cards or daguerreotypes, Smith decided she needed to give the unnamed people on the cards a story and a voice. Unshuttered is a collection of 43 poems, alongside the particular photographs that match, which tell a story and give words to those who otherwise would be unremembered.
Obit: Poems by Victoria Chang, published April 2020
After her mother died, poet Victoria Chang refused to write elegies. Rather, she distilled her grief during a feverish two weeks by writing scores of poetic obituaries for all she lost in the world. In Obit, Chang writes of “the way memory gets up after someone has died and starts walking.” These poems reinvent the form of newspaper obituary to both name what has died (“civility,” “language,” “the future,” “Mother’s blue dress”) and the cultural impact of death on the living.
From From: Poems by Monica Youn, published March 2023
Youn is the child of Korean immigrants. She grew up in Texas but now lives in New York as a racial minority. The result is "a volume of poems that is deeply heartfelt yet bracingly suspicious, exploratory and accomplished" (Poetry School). The title sets the stage to answer the irritating question: "Where are you from?"
from unincorporated territory [amot] by Craig Santos Perez, published April 2023, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2023.
If you want to read poetry which also makes you think and feel something new, this collection is for you. If you want to learn about Guam and its struggles, this collection is for you. If you like Spam or making fun of Spam, this collection is for you. This small little gem is my favorite of the set because of how much it moved me.
Dark Testament: Blackout Poems by Crystal Simone Smith, published January 2023
This YA book full of blackout or erasure poems, is a masterful memorial for Blacks who were killed because of their skin color. Most poems were powerful and thought-provoking. I recommend it as a good reading choice this April, poetry month.
The Kissing of Kissing by Hannah Emerson, published March 2022
I pretty much had my mind blown by The Kissing of Kissing. I didn't read the back of the book, the author bio, or the information about multiverse language until I read the first three poems and I thought something is going on here. What a treat to be welcomed into the brain and the thought-patterns of a non-speaking autistic poet. I set aside what I have in terms of preconceived notions about language and just enjoyed the process.
How to Be Perfect: Poems by Ron Padgett, published in 2007
How to Be Perfect: Poems by Ron Padgett is a poetry collection for everyone. It is for people who really, really don't think they like poetry and for those who really, really do. It would appeal to those who don't understand most poems and for those who seem to get them all. It could tickle the funny bone of most readers yet cause others to stop and think, nodding approval. In other words, this is the poetry book for you.
What Kind of Woman: Poems by Kate Baer, published November 2020
This is Kate Baer's first book of poetry published in 2020. It is, as the title implies, almost exclusively dedicated to the experiences of girls, women, wives, and mothers. "Through poems that are as unforgettably beautiful as they are accessible, Kate proves herself to be an exemplary voice in modern poetry. Her words make women feel seen in their own bodies, in their own marriages, and in their own lives" (Book jacket).
Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano By Himself by Monica Ediger and Lesley Younge, published March 2023
Olaudah Equiano was born in an Igbo village in what is now southern Nigeria in 1745, captured and enslaved as a child and shipped to the Caribbean where he was sold to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more before he was able to buy his own freedom in 1766. In the 1789 he wrote an autobiography about his life and experiences, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano. It was quite popular with the abolitionists in Britain and actually may have helped lead to the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Using this narrative as a primary source text, authors Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge share Equiano's life story in "found verse," supplemented with annotations to give YA readers historical context.
Grace Notes: Poems about Families by Naomi Shihab Nye, published May 2024
Here is what the publisher says about this Middle Grade gem: "In one hundred and seventeen deeply personal poems, beloved poet Naomi Shihab Nye invites readers into the family, community, and a world of connections and complicated rhythms, and asks us to pause and think about those who love us. And those we love."
-Anne
