Poetry for Adults

April is National Poetry Month, an occasion to celebrate poets and poetry, and to mark poetry’s importance in our lives.

Updated March 3, 2026
L
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Happy Valley Library
This is your list in printable form. Simply print this page using your browser's print command.

Poetry for Adults

April is National Poetry Month, an occasion to celebrate poets and poetry, and to mark poetry’s importance in our lives.

Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
This is the honey : an anthology of contemporary Black poets
Alexander, Kwame
Paper Book
In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology, bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander curates a collection of anthems for our time, at turns tender and piercing, and deeply inspiring throughout. Featuring work from well-loved poets such as Claudia Rankine, Ross Gay, Jericho Brown,...
Paper boat : new and selected poems, 1961-2023
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
An extraordinary career-spanning collection from one of the most revered poets and storytellers of our age Tracing the legacy of Margaret Atwood--a writer who has fundamentally shaped the contemporary literary landscapes--Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems, 1961-2023...
Quiet : poems
Bulley, Victoria Adukwei
Paper Book
A black British poet making her thrilling American debut explores the importance of "quiet" in producing forms of community, resistance, and love. "Bulley's stunning poems draw you in with their melodious versatility, intellect and dexterity; [they] perfectly embody the...
The new economy
Calvocoressi, Gabrielle
Paper Book
*2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD Finalist* The New Economy memorializes the world's pleasures and perils told through the point of view of an aging, ungendered body. A devotional to the ungendered vessel as it ages, dreams, and survives. A practice of radical collaboration, failure, and...
Becoming Ghost
Che, Cathy Linh.
Paper Book
2025 National Book Award Finalist 2026 APALA Literature Awards - Asian American Poetry Winner Ms. Magazine's Best Poetry of 2024 and 2025 Electric Literature's Best Poetry Collections, 2025 NPR's Books We Love 2025 2026 ALA...
Scorched earth
Clark, Tiana
Paper Book
2025 National Book Award Finalist The striking sophomore poetry collection from the award-winning author of the "beautiful, vulnerable, honest" (Ross Gay, New York Times bestselling author) I Can't Talk About the Trees Without the Blood. Dive between...
Dog show : poems
Collins, Billy
Paper Book
ONE OF OPRAH'S FAVORITE THINGS! NATIONAL BESTSELLER New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins captures the essence and mystery of dogs in this special collection of poems inspired by our beloved companions, with striking...
My life : growing up native in America
Echo Hawk, Crystal
Paper Book
A moving collection of twenty powerful essays, poems, and more that capture and celebrate the modern Native American experience, featuring entries by Angeline Boulley, Madison Hammond, Kara Roselle Smith, and many more. With heart, pathos, humor, and insight, twenty...
Jailbreak of Sparrows: Poems
Espada, Martin
Paper Book
In this brilliant new collection of poems, National Book Award winner Martín Espada offers narratives of the forgotten and the unforgettable. The poems in Jailbreak of Sparrows reveal the ways in which the ordinary becomes monumental: family portraits, politically charged...
Soldiers don't go mad : a story of brotherhood, poetry, and mental illness during the First World War
Glass, Charles
Paper Book
The #1 Amazon UK bestseller in War Poetry A brilliant and poignant history of the friendship between two great war poets, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, alongside a narrative investigation of the origins of PTSD and the literary response to World War I From the...
Winter recipes from the collective
Glück, Louise
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE A haunting book by a poet whose voice speaks of all our lifetimes Louise Glück's thirteenth book is among her most haunting. Here as in the Wild Iris there is a chorus, but the speakers are entirely human,...
Latino poetry : the Library of America anthology
González, Rigoberto
Paper Book
There are a brilliant array of contemporary voices here as well, spinning out the tapestry of Latino poetry in daring new directions. Taking the measure of this current renaissance, the anthology culminates with the most comprehensive survey of twenty-first century Latino poetry yet published....
Collected poems
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paper Book
At last, a major American poet collected for the first time in the sixth volume of the definitive Library of Edition of her works STARRED REVIEW IN PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Ursula K. Le Guin's career began and ended with poetry. This sixth volume in the definitive...
Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde
Gumbs, Alexis Pauline
Paper Book
A Time Must-Read Book of the YearWinner of the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian NonfictionWinner of the 2025 Zora Award A Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year Shortlisted for the 2025 Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize ...
Living nations, living words : an anthology of first peoples poetry
Harjo, Joy
Paper Book
Joy Harjo, the first Native poet to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, has championed the voices of Native peoples past and present. Her signature laureate project gathers the work of contemporary Native poets into a national, fully digital map of story, sound, and space, celebrating their vital and...
When the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through : a Norton anthology of Native nations poetry
Harjo, Joy
Paper Book
This landmark anthology celebrates the indigenous peoples of North America, the first poets of this country, whose literary traditions stretch back centuries. Opening with a blessing from Pulitzer Prize-winner N. Scott Momaday, the book contains powerful introductions from contributing editors...
Every day we get more illegal
Herrera, Juan Felipe
Paper Book
Voted a Best Poetry Book of the Year by Library Journal Included in Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Poetry Books of the Year One of LitHub's most Anticipated Books of the Year! A State of the Union from the nation's first Latino Poet Laureate. Trenchant, compassionate, and filled...
Ten Indian classics
Hoskote, Ranjit
Paper Book
"The Murty Classical Library of India sifts through multiple languages and thousands of years to bring a nation's literary treasures to English-language readers." --Wall Street Journal Romantic ghazals and devotional quatrains, medieval battles and separated lovers,...
Muse of fire : World War I as seen through the lives of the soldier poets
Korda, Michael
Paper Book
Michael Korda, the best-selling author of Hero and Alone, tells the story of the First World War not in any conventional way but through the intertwined lives of the soldier poets who came to describe it best, and indeed to symbolize the war's tragic arc and lethal fury. His epic narrative...
The diaspora sonnets
De la Paz, Oliver
Paper Book
In 1972, after Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, Oliver de la Paz's father, in a last fit of desperation to leave the Philippines, threw his papers at an immigration clerk, hoping to get them stamped. He was prepared to leave, having already quit his job and having exchanged pesos for...
The Best American Poetry 2025
Lehman, David
Paper Book
Guest edited by Terence Winch--NEA Fellow and editor of the "pick of the week" on the Best American Poetry blog--the 2025 edition marks a poignant farewell to series editor David Lehman, celebrating more than three decades of poetic excellence. For thirty-eight years,...
Promise that you will sing about me : the power and poetry of Kendrick Lamar
Lewis, Miles Marshall
Paper Book
A stunning, in-depth look at the power and poetry of one of the most consequential rappers of our time. Kendrick Lamar is one of the most influential rappers, songwriters and record producers of his generation. Widely known for his incredible lyrics and powerful music, he is...
The hurting kind : poems
Limón, Ada
Paper Book
An astonishing collection about interconnectedness--between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ourselves--from National Book Critics Circle Award winner, National Book Award finalist and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. "I have always been too...
And we rise : the Civil Rights Movement in poems
Martin, Erica
Paper Book
*"A powerful, necessary book." SLJ, starred review A powerful, impactful, eye-opening journey that explores through the Civil Rights Movement in 1950s-1960s America in spare and evocative verse, with historical photos interspersed throughout. In stunning verse...
Poet in the new world : poems, 1946-1953
Miłosz, Czesław
Paper Book
A new collection of work from Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz that includes previously untranslated poems written during his time in Washington, D.C., and his years in Europe before and after. One of the most revered poets of the twentieth century, Czeslaw Milosz, a defining voice in...
Together in a sudden strangeness : America's poets respond to the pandemic
Quinn, Alice
Paper Book
In this urgent outpouring of American voices, our poets speak to us as they shelter in place, addressing our collective fear, grief, and hope from eloquent and diverse individual perspectives. "One of the best books of poetry of the year . . . Quinn has accomplished something...
Dunce
Ruefle, Mary
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE 2020 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRY A finalist for both the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award and a the LA Times Book Award, and longlisted for the National Book Award. Through her many projects across numerous genres, Mary Ruefle has proven herself a...
From unincorporated territory [Ã¥mot]
Santos Perez, Craig
Paper Book
Experimental and visual poems diving into the history and culture of the poet's homeland, Guam.   This book is the fifth collection in Craig Santos Perez's ongoing from unincorporated territory series about the history of his homeland, the western Pacific island of...
Customs : poems
Sharif, Solmaz
Paper Book
Winner of the 2023 CLMP Firecracker Award for Poetry Winner of the 2023 Northern California Book Award for Poetry Finalist for the 2023 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Finalist for the 2022 L.A. Times Book Prize for Poetry Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award<...
I do know some things
Siken, Richard
Paper Book
*2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD Finalist* I Do Know Some Things is a brave book, both in content and method. It is brave to write about childhood scars and the heartbreak the dead leave behind. It is brave to reconfigure one's life in the aftermath of a stroke. Richard Siken...
Above ground : poems
Smith, Clint
Paper Book
A New York Times bestselling poetry collection from Clint Smith, author of #1 bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award winner How the Word Is Passed.  "A joyful embrace and legacy of bright language and poignant questions." --Aimee...
Tripas : poems
Som, Brandon
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2024 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRY Finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Poetry With Tripas, Brandon Som follows up his award-winning debut with a book of poems built out of a multicultural, multigenerational childhood home, in which...
Vinegar Hill
To?ibi?n, Colm
Paper Book
From the New York Times best-selling author of Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín's first collection of poetry explores sexuality, religion, and belonging through a modern lens Fans of Colm Tóibín's novels, including The Magician, The Master, and Nora Webster<...
The blue house : collected works of Tomas Transtrm?er
Transtrm?er, Tomas
Paper Book
Nobel Prize-winner Tomas Tranströmer explores the personal and political, the ecological and existential, through poems that expand like the widening scope of a telephoto lens. With slow strokes and subtle, rich lines, The Blue...
Duende : poems, 1966-now
Troupe, Quincy
Paper Book
Quincy Troupe writes poetry in great waves. The words are just notes. It's the music you make with them that matters. Troupe is a generous and gregarious poet in this giant offering that includes many new poems, as well as a selection chosen from across his eleven previously published volumes. What...
Something about living
Tuffaha, Lena Khalaf
Paper Book
Winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry 2025 ALA Notable Book Winner of the 2025 Washington State Book Award for Poetry 2025 Arab American Book Award Winner (George Ellenbogen Poetry Award) Winner of the 2022 Akron Poetry Prize It's nearly impossible to...
A Holy Dread
Villanueva, R A
Paper Book
Winner of the 2024 Alice James Award "...the holy dread with which we face that which we love most, or that which loves us the most..." --Mary Ruefle, "On Fear"  In this highly anticipated second collection of poetry, R. A. Villanueva reckons with identity, family, and...
Time is a mother
Vuong, Ocean
Paper Book
"Take your time with these poems, and return to them often." --The Washington Post The New York Times-bestselling collection of poems from the award-winning writer Ocean Vuong How else do we return to ourselves but to fold The...
Black girl you are Atlas
Watson, Renaee
Paper Book
A Coretta Scott King Honor Book Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award A thoughtful celebration of Black girlhood by award-winning author and poet Renee Watson. In this semi-autobiographical collection of poems, Renee Watson writes about her experience...

2024

From from : poems
Youn, Monica
Paper Book
* WINNER OF THE 2024 ANISFIELD-WOLF BOOK AWARD * * FINALIST FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * * NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2023 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, NPR, TIME, ELECTRIC LITERATURE, BOMB, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, AND LIBRARY JOURNAL *

2023

African American poetry : 250 years of struggle & song
Young, Kevin
Paper Book
Taking the measure of the tradition in a single indispensable volume, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song sets a new standard for a genuinely deep engagement with Black poetry and its essential expression of American genius.
Find this list online

https://librarian.syndetics.com/syndeticsunbound/lp/798.1161/list/1080

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.