In Tiny Beautiful Things, Cheryl Strayed tells people in their twenties, "To go to a bookstore and buy ten books of poetry and read them five times each. Because the truth is inside."
While I don't have all ten of the collections that I want (I do have two more years of my twenties left, so I still have time), here are five poetry collections that I absolutely love.
[Image description: the book cover for Ocean Voung's Night Sky with Exit Wounds]
This poetry collection was the first ever collection of poetry that helped me learn to appreciate a poem. Ocean Vuong explores his experience as a queer Vietnamese immigrant. The writing is beautiful, intimate, and powerful.
[Image description: the book cover for Marie Howe's What the Living Do]
In What the Living Do, Marie Howe writes about sitting with her brother, as he dies from A.I.D.S. Her work explores what it means to live in the face of death, which as we've noted from the past few entries of my blog, I'm into that exploration.
[Image description: Shanan Ballam's Inside the Animal]
In this poetry collection, Ballam explores the story of Little Red Riding Hood from the perspective of various characters. The poems explore missed love, feminism, and abuse.
[Image description: Dayna Patterson's If Mother Braids a Waterfall]
Patterson's If Mother Braids a Waterfall explores Patterson's exodus from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Patterson writes about the polygamist history of the church and of her family, and writes about her mother coming out as a bisexual woman. It's strong work that helped me find a voice that I could relate to.
[Image description: Star Coulbrooke's City of Poetry]
Coulbrooke's City of Poetry is a collection of poems written about the Rocky Mountain valley that I call home. Coubrooke's work is focused on location and on specific detail. While the focus is specific, and powerful for myself, Coulbrooke works to expand the deeper focus of her poetry expands outward from the specific details.