Credit: Courtesy of publishers
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8 poetry collections to add to your reading list in time for World Poetry Day
By Amy Beecham
5 days ago
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3 min read
From The Poetry Pharmacy to Wendy Cope’s The Orange, these thought-provoking anthologies and collections are the perfect way to mark World Poetry Day on 21 March.
Like a good book, just a few lines of beautiful poetry can stay with you forever. And with World Poetry Day on 21 March, there’s never been a better time to dive into the poems that make us feel seen, comforted and sometimes challenged.
From debut works about grief, mental health and global diasporas to heart-warming anthologies by poetry icons, here are eight of the best collections to get stuck into now.
The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-And-True Prescriptions For The Heart, Mind And Soul by William Sieghart
The Orange And Other Poems by Wendy Cope
Shop The Orange And Other Poems by Wendy Cope (Faber & Faber) at Bookshop.org, £10
Egg/Shell by Victoria Kennefick
Acclaimed as one of the boldest poetic voices to emerge in recent years, Victoria Kennefick, in the follow-up to her bestselling Eat Or We Both Starve, breaks new ground with moving poems about early motherhood, miscarriage and the impact of a spouse’s gender transition and the dissolution of a marriage.
Shop Egg/Shell by Victoria Kennefick (Carcanet Press) at Bookshop.org, £11.99
I Cannot Be Good Until You Say It by Sanah Ahsan
Shop I cannot be good until you say it by Sanah Ahsan (Bloomsbury) at Bookshop.org, £9.99
Nobody Asked For This by Charly Cox
Combining Cox’s bestselling She Must Be Mad and Validate Me with 70 new poems and handwritten annotations, she paints a complex picture of the formative experiences of womanhood and living with bipolar II disorder.
From first loves to lost loves and to the dark humour of mental illness, Nobody Asked For This is an intimate and unflinchingly honest exploration of growing up in the 21st century.
Shop Nobody Asked For This by Charly Cox (HarperCollins) at Bookshop.org, £14.99
Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
Shop Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong (Vintage Publishing) at Bookshop.org, £12
44 Poems On Being With Each Other by Pádraig Ó Tuama
Compiling the work of acclaimed writers from across the globe, 44 Poems on Being with Each Other features a remarkable and refreshing range of exceptional poems from around the world including contributions from Wendy Cope, Constantine P. Cavafy, Chen Chen, Joy Harjo, Patricia Smith and many more.
Lobster And Other Things I’m Learning To Love by Hollie McNish
We are told to be repulsed by our own bodies – the bodies that let us laugh and sweat and eat toast. We are told to be ashamed of pleasure and to be embarrassed by fun. In this collection, Hollie McNish questions what we have been taught to hate, and if we might ever learn to love again.
Images: courtesy of publishers
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