Your wish is my command, because I'm a Poetry Bitch with exquisite taste:
blud by Rachel McKibbens is pretty much my all-time fave; angry and devastating poetry about child abuse, trauma and recovery. Check the trigger warnings on this one, though - it's pretty brutal
Where I Dry the Flowers by Ollie Schminkey - literally the best book about complex grief I've ever read, poetry or otherwise
Hera Lindsay Bird by Hera Lindsay Bird - unhinged, feral, will reshape your brain, probably into the shape of something like a sandwich or an umbrella
Homie by Danez Smith - I mean, you should read everything Danez Smith has ever written, but this is my personal fave for the way it centres companionship and connectedness in our current hellscape dystopia
All the Men I Never Married by Kim Moore - incredibly cathartic, will have you enraged, 50% because of the content, 50% because you didn't write them
You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson - all hail Andrea Gibson, need I say more
Not Vanishing by Chrystos - rage-filled lesbian poetry from the '90s
Grief's Alphabet by Carrie Etter - incredibly moving poetry about the death of the poet's parents
Vertigo & Ghost by Fiona Benson - poetry about rape culture, told through the lens of Greek myth
Underneath the Roses Where I Remembered Everything by Molly Case - a pamphlet about being a nurse and the connections you do and don't make with patients, more people should read this one (it has an unforgivable 17 ratings on Goodreads, despite actually rewiring my brain and making me sob at a bus stop)
Muse by Dawn Marie Kresan - poetry retelling and reclaiming the life of Lizzie Siddal, the 'muse' of various Pre-Raphaelite painters
If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar - interesting and experimental collection about identity and marginalisation, does incredible things with form (who knew that a building blueprint could also be a poem?)
Salt by Nayyirah Waheed - unfairly maligned as 'Instagram poetry', much more complex than the reductive, misogynistic categorising allows (one day I will write my more Complex Thoughts on 'Instagram poetry' in general, but for now: read Nayyirah Waheed!)
Swallowtail by Brenna Twohy - one of the best collections about sexual assault and recovery I've ever read, plus Twohy is now living her best retired poet lesbian life and I genuinely love that for her
Please Do Not Touch This Exhibit by Jen Campbell - about the monstering and Othering of disabled people and bodies, will make you want to start a revolution
Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood - a dissection of girlhood and true crime, phenomenally inventive, genuinely made me reassess my relationship with true crime content
Dad, Remember You Are Dead by Jacqueline Saphra - a beautiful collection about complex grief, will make you cry and squirm
The Ferguson Report: An Erasure by Nicole Sealey - an erasure poem created from the Ferguson Report after the murder of Michael Brown, and one of the greatest literary achievements I've ever read - this is a must-read for literally everyone with any interest at all in what poetry can do
Constructing a Witch by Helen Ivory - poetry about menopause and Not Giving A Fuck, makes me excited for ageing
The Green Hollow by Owen Sheers - a poetry retelling and excavation of the 1966 Aberfan disaster, based on survivor and witness testimony
Blessing the Boats by Lucille Clifton - I mean, technically everything that Lucille Clifton ever wrote, but this is a great anthology as it encompasses her entire poetry career
bone by Yrsa Daley-Ward - a really generous autobiographical collection about growing up as one of the few Black women in a Northern British town, made me immediately read the poet's memoir
Other Women's Kitchens by Alison Binney - the most lesbian pamphlet you'll ever read (complimentary)
An eye for an eye for an eye by Ellen Renton - a fantastic collection about disability and ableism
Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble - incredibly cool girl poetry about Māori girlhood, simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking
I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer - erasure poetry made from misogynistic hatemail, what's not to love
Hoping to find even more favourites this August as I plough through the remainder of my poetry collection! But in the meanwhile, these are my personal favourites, and remember that life really is too short to read r.h. sin. Don't do that to yourself.
