I love poetry, and I know I’m not alone. Poets have been pouring a lot of meaning into only a few words for centuries, and they continue today. Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Whether you prefer Billy Collins, Rupi Kaur or Shel Silverstein, we’ve got you covered. Here are some of our most beloved poetry books written in the last 50 years.
- Epistle to a Godson, by W.H. Auden
- The Human Season, by Archibald MacLeish
- You Get So Alone at Times that It Just Makes Sense, by Charles Bukowski
- And Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou
- Collected Poems, by John Betjeman
- Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, by Nikki Giovanni
- The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, by Pablo Neruda
- Waiting for My Life, by Linda Pastan
- A Light in the Attic, by Shel Siverstein
- The Changing Light at Sandover, by James Merrill
- Whispering to Fool the Wind, by Alberto Rios
- Love Death and the Changing of the Seasons, by Marilyn Hacker
- White Shroud, by Allen Ginsberg
- Thomas and Beulah, by Rita Dove
- The Reproduction of Profiles, by Rosmarie Waldrop
- Selected Poems by Grwendolyn Brooks, by Gwendolyn Brooks
- The Selected Poems of Ted Berrigan, by Ted Berrigan
- Selected Poems, by Robert Creeley
- Alias Bob Dylan, by Stephen Scobie
- The Shout, by Simon Armitage
- The Simple Truth, by Philip Levine
- Atlantis, by Mark Doty
- Paradiso Diaspora, by John Yau
- The Descent of Alette, by Alice Notley
- Tales from Ovid, by Ted Hughes
- Journey through Heartsongs, by Mattie Stepanex
- The World’s Wife, by Carol Ann Duffy
- The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body, by Alberto Rios
- Iguanas in the Snow, by Francisco X. Alarcon
- Birthplace with Buried Stones, by Meena Alexander
- The Fatalist, by Lyn Hejinian
- Owls and Other Fantasies, by Mary Oliver
- The Trouble with Poetry, by Billy Collins
- Book of Longing, by Leonard Cohen
- Duende, by Tracy K. Smith
- The Earth in the Attic, by Fady Jourdah
- Coming in to Land, by Andrew Motion
- Horoscopes for the Dead, by Billy Collins
- An American Sunrise, by Joy Harjo
- No Matter the Wreckage, by Sarah Kay
- Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, by Warsan Shire
- Bright Dead Things, by Ada Limon
- Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jaqueline Woodson
- Night Sky with Exit Wounds, by Ocean Vuong
- the sun and her flowers, by rupi kaur
- Jabberwalking, by Juan Felipe Herrera
- Oceanic, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Nouns & Verbs, by Campbell McGrath
- Playlist for the Apocalypse, by Rita Dove
- Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman
Find more of your favorite poems and poets at your local HPB or HPB.com. Sound off on your sonnet of choice in the comments.