Lucinda's Poetry Reading

I don't write poetry, but I read quite a bit . . . especially during April each year.

So far in 2026 I've read:
Girl Warrior: Coming of Age by Joy Harjo
Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times by Tracy K. Smith
The Age of Phillis by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
The Glory Gets by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time edited by Tracy K. Smith
and I just started
You don't have to be everything edited by Diana Whitney
and
Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light by Joy Harjo

I'll try to remember to update this post as I read more.

Happy Poetry Month!

>1 LucindaLibri: Welcome to The Poetry Collective and Happy Poetry Month to you too! Looks like you are having an excellent 2026 year for poetry. Which collection have you enjoyed most, so far?

Whenever you are ready, please feel free to sign up to post a poem for the group to read and discuss on an upcoming Saturday. The sign up roster is here:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/374036#8954197

Again, glad to have you Lucinda and I look forward to seeing your updates and comments.

>2 DebiCates:
Thanks!

So far I would recommend Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times to almost everyone, especially people who say "I don't like poetry." :) It's includes some "how to read poetry" tips that are really about opening yourself up to poetry (rather than dictates/prescriptions). And of course it also contains many excellent poems.

But the collection I got the most from personally was The Age of Phillis which is about/in honor of the poet Phillis Wheatley. Turns out, just about everything we've been taught about her was likely wrong. I actually started by reading the author's Honoree Fanonne Jeffers notes about her research (near the back of the book) and then went back and read the poems.

I'm not big on "discussing" poetry . . . because I experience it as a very personal thing and don't want to get into arguments about "what this poem MEANS" . . . but I'll think about signing up to post some of my favorites.

I'm a HUGE fan of Naomi Shihab Nye . . . among others. (You may have noticed I tend to prefer female poets :)

>3 LucindaLibri: Thank you for the recommendations, I'm going to add them to my TBR so I can keep an eye out for them. I'm reading right now, To Read Poetry by poet Donald Hall which, happily, is a whole lot of poems.

I used to keep track of what percentage I read, male/female writers, but discovered that I naturally read about 50/50, especially once I got through my phase of reading "the classics" which of course is historically heavily male. I think that is changing and the "new" classics may be rid of the old male privilege. What do you think? Are you hopeful, too?

Thankfully I haven't seen any arguments here about what a poem means. Everyone is pretty chill in their discussions and explorations, with plenty of room for individual experiences and no delving into right or wrong readings. I know my appreciation has grown through the group and, like you, would not enjoy it if it were otherwise. Hope you'll think about signing up! Most regulars here enjoy the variety and the surprise each week.

Hope to see you around in the group. I think you might enjoy it.

>3 LucindaLibri: I thought of you when I saw this amazing video of one of Nye's poems.

“Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye, A Poetry Film by Ana Pérez López https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFLQOOiAqxQ

>5 DebiCates:
Thank you! That was lovely.

Here is my favorite poem of hers: "Gate A-4"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwDXJ50U22o

Enjoy!

>6 LucindaLibri: Love love that poem. I've read it before but I have never seen Nye recite it. In fact, I've never seen Nye herself! I lived in Lebanon and Egypt in high school, had a number of Palestinian classmates and friends, so I related quite a lot to that poem.

Thank you for sharing that.

Update: I finished reading the You don't have to be everything collection. I had hoped it would be appropriate for a young friend's birthday, but it really isn't for "girls" . . . more appropriate for "young women"/teenagers. (The friend is much younger than that.) It contains some helpful poems for the difficult situations/emotions of coming of age as a female: seeking, loneliness, attitude, rage, longing shame, sadness, belonging. The poems are by a diverse collection of poets. I'll reconsider it in a few years.

>8 LucindaLibri: I'll keep that title in mind too, I have two granddaughters that are not yet teens, but fast approaching.

I forgot to come back and update this at the end of April, but ended up extending Poetry Month into May when I read The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton. WOW! Fabulous!

I love shorter collections of poetry, but sometimes reading a poet's collected works in chronological order provides insights that just dipping in for a book now and then does not. Definitely true for Lucille Clifton. And despite being nearly 800 pages, I finished it about 3 weeks, reading large sections at a time. Highly recommended!

(I did also finish the Joy Harjo's collection Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light, which was 50 poems for 50 years . . . a different type of overview. At the back it includes notes by the poet for each poem (some explaining the context, some explaining the poem itself) . . . those were very helpful.)

In May I also read So Much Synth by Brenda Shaughnessy . . . another poet I enjoy reading.