National Poetry Month 2025 - Books for Adults

Updated March 26, 2025
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100 poems to break your heart
Hirsch, Edward
Paper Book
100 of the most moving and inspiring poems of the last 200 years from around the world, a collection that will comfort and enthrall anyone trapped by grief or loneliness, selected by the award-winning, best-selling, and beloved author of How to Read a Poem Implicit in poetry is the...
An American sunrise : poems
Harjo, Joy
Paper Book
In the early 1800s, the Mvskoke people were forcibly removed from their original lands east of the Mississippi to Indian Territory, which is now part of Oklahoma. Two hundred years later, Joy Harjo returns to her family's lands and opens a dialogue with history. In An American Sunrise, Harjo...
The annotated Emerson
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Paper Book
A brilliant essayist and a master of the aphorism ("Our moods do not believe in each other"; "Money often costs too much"), Emerson has inspired countless writers. He challenged Americans to shut their ears against Europe's "courtly muses" and to forge a new, distinctly American cultural identity...
Context Collapse: A Poem Containing a History of Poetry
Ruby, Ryan
Paper Book
Literary critic Ryan Ruby uncovers the secret history of poetry in a mock-academic verse essay filled with wit and wisdom. One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2024 Prophet. Entertainer. Courtier. Criminal. Revolutionary. Critic. Scholar. Nobody. Epic in...
Don't call us dead : poems
Smith, Danez
Paper Book
Finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry Winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection "[Smith's] poems are enriched to the point of volatility, but they pay out, often, in sudden joy."--The New Yorker Award-winning poet Danez Smith is...
Forest of Noise : Poems
Toha, Mosab Abu
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * "A powerful, capacious, and profound" (Ocean Vuong) new collection of poems about life in Gaza by an award-winning Palestinian poet. You are alive for a moment when living people run after you.<...
Life on Mars : poems
Smith, Tracy K.
Paper Book
Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize * Poet Laureate of the United States * * A New York Times Notable Book of 2011 and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * * A New Yorker, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly Best Book...
Promises of gold = Promesas de oro
Olivarez, Josae
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD Named one of NPR's Books We Love "How many bad lovers have gotten poems? How many crushes? No disrespect to romantic love--but what about our friends ? Those homies who are there all...
Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space
Barnett, Catherine
Paper Book
The loneliness that collects in mirrors and faces--at bedside vigils and in city streets--quickens Catherine Barnett's metaphysical poems, which are like speculative prescriptions for this common human experience. Here loneliness is filled with belonging, which is in turn filled with loneliness,...
The sun and her flowers
Kaur, Rupi
Paper Book
Watch rupi kaur live now on Prime Video. "Rupi Kaur is the Writer of the Decade." -- The New Republic From rupi kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry....
Things you may find hidden in my ear : poems from Gaza
Abu Toha, Mosab
Paper Book
Winner of the Palestine Book Award and the American Book Award  National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry Finalist Shortlisted for the 2022 Walcott Poetry Prize "Written from his native Gaza, Abu Toha's accomplished debut contrasts...
This is the honey : an anthology of contemporary Black poets
Alexander, Kwame
A breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising Black poets and writers of our time, edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander. In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology,...
Wade in the water : poems
Smith, Tracy K.
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize Finalist for the Forward Prize for Best Collection The extraordinary new poetry collection by Tracy K. Smith, the Poet Laureate of the United States Even the men in black armor, the ones Jangling...
Water, Water: Poems
Collins, Billy
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the former Poet Laureate of the United States and New York Times bestselling author of Aimless Love comes a wondrous new collection of poems focused on the joys and mysteries of daily life. "Among the best poems that [Billy] Collins has...
A year of last things : poems
Ondaatje, Michael
Paper Book
From one of the most influential writers of his generation, a gorgeously surprising poetry collection about memory, history, and the act of looking back Following several of his internationally acclaimed novels, A Year of Last Things is Michael Ondaatje's long-awaited...
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World
Limon, Ada
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Big Reads Selection A 2024 NPR "Books We Love" Selection "Whoever you are, you will find yourself and your own world in the expansiveness of this collection." -Margaret Renkl, New York Times ...

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