It’s National Poetry Month! One of my favorite times of the year! With sunny days ahead, why not settle in some grass (or on your porch) with a few of the NHPR staff’s favorite poems?
If you’re looking to add a bit more poetry to your life (and let’s be honest, we could all use a bit more poetry), here are a few fun ideas:
- Sign-up for Poem-a-Day, curated this month by U. S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, and read a poem each morning.
- Subscribe to the Poem-a-Day podcast.
- Make a poetry playlist.
- Write an exquisite corpse or a renga with friends.
Send us a note with your favorite poem or poet to voices@nhpr.org. I can’t wait to read your suggestions! - Zoë
______________________________________
The Forgetting Curve by Mollie O’Leary
A chapbook published in 2023. Touching collection. Her first publication. - Christine Maurer
Half Light: Collected Poems by Frank Bidart
These poems are gentle and also challenging, sometimes soft and sometimes sexy and sometimes hard. A contemporary master of the form, Bidart is also one of the loveliest people I’ve had the opportunity to meet. - Sara Plourde
The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
-Andrew Lakowicz
horror movie pitch by Eve L Ewing
A funny concept that’s really a gut punch. And there’s a part 2! - Jackie Harris
As I Walked Out One Evening by W.H. Auden
I recommend memorizing this poem then muttering it to yourself while walking through crowded sidewalks until you find yourself in some open field or park towards the end. - Jackie Harris
Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan
Hundreds of poems by one of the most special voices in American poetry! This collection spans decades and includes some previously unpublished writing. - Zoë Kay
The Moon is Always Female by Marge Piercy
She can break your heart with a poem about an overabundance of garden zucchini. Do you really need more convincing than that? - Sara Plourde
[you fit into me]by Margaret Atwood
Layers of meaning in just four lines! - Jackie Harris
Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
It just transports me to a peaceful place. - Jim Schachter
Love is a Dog from Hell by Charles Bukowski
So many gut punches in this collection. I just love Bukowski. - Zoë Kay
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
Beautiful imagery, prompting visceral memories. - Christine Louis
Lunch Poems by Frank O’Hara
He wrote many of these on the way to/ from lunch, walking the streets of Manhattan. Each line, a gem of delight, wisdom, or both. Start with “A Step Away from Them” and you’ll see what I mean. - Katie Colaneri
NHPR Reads is a blog series published on the second Thursday of the month dedicated to poetry, prose, and everything in between. Follow along for a staff-curated list of what we’re reading that month and read along with us!
