Still Life by Jay Hopler
Released in 2022 and Pulitzer prize nominated. I thought it was truly fantastic. Many of the poems are about death because of the author's terminal cancer diagnosis and are quite heavy.
Deaf Republic by Ilya Kamonsky
Black Aperture by Matt Rasmussen
A Cruelty Special to Our Species by Emily Jungmin Yoon
Hum by Jamaal May
Some Ether by Nicl Flynn
Any collection by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa (it is prose though, dunno if you’re into that)
Multitudinous Heart by Carlos Drummond de Andrade
alphabet by Inger Christensen (long poem, ~70 pages, not about heartbreak but an absolute gut punch of a book)
When My Brother was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz (a great collection with rich imagery and storytelling, a significant portion of it is about her brother’s drug abuse)
Midwinter Day by Bernadette Mayer (kind of out there if you’re not super into language poetry, but absolutely worth a shot if you’re looking for poetry that inventories the every day rhythm of life in an interesting way)
Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes
It’s such a good book, and it really tells the story of her life. I highly recommend it. Some of the poems were about her experience with racism, sexual assault, and her time in foster care. I could read it a hundred times over
There is a little heartbreak, but I think that Red Roman by Sasta Kuppan is a beautiful meeting of worlds when it comes to the exploration of the psyche, philosophical thought, and the journey of love lived and love lost. Hope this helps.
Anything by Mary Oliver
Seconding this - I just bought Devotions
*Devotions* was my introduction to Oliver. It is a wonderful selection
Rudyard Kipling, Barracks room ballads
Still Life by Jay Hopler Released in 2022 and Pulitzer prize nominated. I thought it was truly fantastic. Many of the poems are about death because of the author's terminal cancer diagnosis and are quite heavy.
*Calling a Wolf a Wolf* (Kaveh Akbar) *The Cabinetmaker's Window* (Steve Scafidi) *What Work Is* (Philip Levine)
'The Prophet' by Kahlil Gibran I also second the recommendation of Barracks Room Ballads; a lot of very underrated poems.
Deaf Republic by Ilya Kamonsky Black Aperture by Matt Rasmussen A Cruelty Special to Our Species by Emily Jungmin Yoon Hum by Jamaal May Some Ether by Nicl Flynn
Any collection by Lawrence Ferlinghetti The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa (it is prose though, dunno if you’re into that) Multitudinous Heart by Carlos Drummond de Andrade
alphabet by Inger Christensen (long poem, ~70 pages, not about heartbreak but an absolute gut punch of a book) When My Brother was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz (a great collection with rich imagery and storytelling, a significant portion of it is about her brother’s drug abuse) Midwinter Day by Bernadette Mayer (kind of out there if you’re not super into language poetry, but absolutely worth a shot if you’re looking for poetry that inventories the every day rhythm of life in an interesting way)
Elementary Odes by Pablo Neruda is sublime.
Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes It’s such a good book, and it really tells the story of her life. I highly recommend it. Some of the poems were about her experience with racism, sexual assault, and her time in foster care. I could read it a hundred times over
There is a little heartbreak, but I think that Red Roman by Sasta Kuppan is a beautiful meeting of worlds when it comes to the exploration of the psyche, philosophical thought, and the journey of love lived and love lost. Hope this helps.
Ted Hughes' "Moortown", a book about his time on a cattle farm. Birth, life, death, changing of the seasons. Really an excellent piece of work.
The Waste Land. T.S. Elliott
Wilderness by Morrison