Every Day Is a Poem by Jacqueline Suskin (manga ereader txt) 📗

following list is really just a tiny taste, a few of my first loves that lean toward the poetic or celebrate the effort of artistry. I could make an ongoing multivolume offering of recommendations at this point on my reading journey.

I’m always working on catching up to contemporary poetry, as my list feels a bit rooted in the past. I find it’s reliable to delve into an exploration of the classics and discover sources of inspiration that travel through time. These words have a wide reach, and I often call on an individual verse to address a challenging emotion or to add to a celebration. My books are dog-eared and bookmarked so I can easily return to the words that heal me.

For example, the poem “In the Waiting Room” by Elizabeth Bishop changed the entire course of my life. When visiting Florida State University (FSU) for the first time, I sat in on a poetry class where the professor read this poem aloud. I had never heard anything so arresting, so relatable, that so fully captured the phenomenon of self-realization. I decided right then and there that I’d attend FSU and study poetry. This single poem shifted my path, and I revisit it whenever I need to refresh that feeling of clear poetic direction. Similarly, the poem “He Thanks His Woodpile” by Lew Welch struck me to the core. In an instance of feeling adrift, I suddenly saw myself on the page, reflected clearly in his words. I reread this piece whenever I need a reminder that I am indeed part of some ancient family of weirdo hermit writers.

MORE OFTEN THAN NOT,

A POEM I LOVE GIVES ME

A SENSE OF BELONGING THAT

I NEED TO FEEL AT EASE

NUNCERTAIN TIMES

These are some poems that I revisit frequently, familiar strongholds for particular situations. Which poems have affected you? Maybe you only have a few in mind, but once you get into the practice of setting aside verses that move you, you’ll end up with your own compendium of poems that you can easily return to in moments of need.

A List of Poems I Return to

in Moments of Need

Poems for Conjuring Awe

“Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman

“Sunflower Sutra,” Allen Ginsberg

“The Fish,” Elizabeth Bishop

Poems for Making Meaning

“Essay on Craft,” Ocean Vuong

“What It Looks Like to Us and the Words We Use,” Ada Limón

Poems for Questions and Answers

“Some Questions You Might Ask,” Mary Oliver

“Singularity,” Marie Howe

“Mutable Earth,” Louise Glück

“Late Fragment,” Raymond Carver

“A Supermarket in California,” Allen Ginsberg

“Lake Echo, Dear,” C. D. Wright

A Poem for the Senses

“White Flowers,” Mary Oliver

Poems to Honor Simplicity

“Soil for Legs,” Nanao Sakaki

“The Red Wheelbarrow,” William Carlos Williams

“Keeping It Simple,” Mary Ruefle

A Poem for Purpose

“Reverie in Open Air,” Rita Dove

A Poem for Conjuring Visions

“From My Forehead,” Alice Notley

A Poem for Time

“Hymn to Time,” Ursula K. Le Guin

Poems for a Few Types of Love

“For a Stone Girl at Sanchi,” Gary Snyder

“Your Hands (Stieglitz to O’Keeffe),” Mandy Kahn

“Habitation,” Margaret Atwood

“What This Is Not,” Mary Oliver

“An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire,” Gwendolyn Brooks

A Poem for Gratitude

“Praying,” Mary Oliver

A Poem for Acceptance

“Lying in the Grass,” Hermann Hesse

A Poem for Growth

“The Man Born to Farming,” Wendell Berry

Poems for the Passing of Time

“The Promise,” Jane Hirshfield

“History as Process,” Amiri Baraka

“The Bunny Gives Us a Lesson in Eternity,” Mary Ruefle

A Poem for Hope

“Daybreak in Alabama,” Langston Hughes

A Poem for Patience

“My Species,” Jane Hirshfield

A Poem for When You Are Lost

“The Undertaking,” Louise Glück

A Poem for Regret

“Meeting the Light Completely,” Jane Hirshfield

Poems for Grief

“For Grief,” John O’Donohue

“What the Living Do,” Marie Howe

“The Wake,” Rita Dove

A Poem for Despair

“Wild Geese,” Mary Oliver

Poems for War

“When the War Is Over,” W. S. Merwin

“Aubade with Burning City,” Ocean Vuong

“Engraving: World-Tree with an Empty Beehive on One Branch,” Jane Hirshfield

A Poem for Darkness

“You Darkness,” Rainer Maria Rilke

A Poem for Fear

“A Litany for Survival,” Audre Lorde

A Poem for Anger

“The Bad Old Days,” Kenneth Rexroth

Poems for Death

“The Shuttles,” W. S. Merwin

“The Leash,” Ada Limón

Poems for Place

“I Went into the Maverick Bar,” Gary Snyder

“As Good as Anything,” Alice Notley

“Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota,” James Wright

Poems That Praise Details

“The Great Black Heron,” Denise Levertov

“A Step Away from Them,” Frank O’Hara

Poems for Motherhood

“The Gift,” Louise Glück

“That Moment,” Sharon Olds

“Morning Song,” Sylvia Plath

“Mothers,” Nikki Giovanni

A Poem for Family

“Kin,” Maya Angelou

Poems for Friendship

“Ode to My Living Friends,” Sharon Olds

“An Exercise in Love,” Diane di Prima

Poems for Listening to the Universe

“A Standing Ground,” Wendell Berry

“Planetarium,” Adrienne Rich

“How to Regain Your Soul,” William Stafford

A Poem in Praise of Words

“In a Word, a World,” C. D. Wright

A Poem for Discipline

“You Want a Social Life, with Friends,” Kenneth Koch

A Poem for Productivity

“Apparently Wasps,” Lew Welch

Poems for Poetic Permission

“How to Be a Poet,” Wendell Berry

“Poetry as Insurgent Art,” Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I compiled this list of singular poems to address distinct emotional states, but the entire canon by these poets is inspiring and important to me. They are some of my favorite voices, and their books continuously aid my growth as a writer. There are so many others: William Blake, CAConrad, E. E. Cummings, Meredith Clark, Franz Wright, Emily Dickinson, Jorie Graham, Philip Levine, Anne Sexton, Sappho, Leonard Cohen, Claudia Rankine, Marge Piercy, Gertrude Stein. The list goes on. Each poet gives me something different, something wholly individual and at the same time human, connective, and energizing.

I prefer to read a book of poetry cover to cover. Often the order of the poems is a narrative, or it guides the reader through a process carefully designed by the writer. So rather than reading a single poem, I like the experience of an entire volume. For example, The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich is perfect start to finish. I wouldn’t want to decide on which section or piece to suggest by itself.

Along with whatever book of poems I’m reading, I usually read another book of fiction, nonfiction, or essays. I also love graphic novels, science fiction, and spiritual texts. These are poetic in their own right. Here’s a list of a few, the