Favorite Poetry Books—2020
2020 was a great year for poetry, new poetry books, and poets. The COVID-19 Pandemic—and resulting stay-at-home mandates—created lots of space for hiking, cooking, practicing yoga, and reading. When things go back to “normal,” I probably won’t have the same normal activities. Rather, I want to continue to save space for myself and continue doing these things that have been healthier and better for me. SO…my favorite poetry books this year, with just a teaser line from each…and with the hope that you will support my fellow poets by buying these books and diving in…
Blackbird by Laura Grace Weldon (Grayson Books) is breathtakingly beautiful. “Moving Day”…The new people don’t yet know/this knuckled lawn glistens/with tiny flowers each spring…
Dear All, by Maggie Anderson (Four Way Books) is my “go to” book when I want to take a deep pause and think about life. “How the Brain Works”…Like a peony. Full white blossoms,/heavy and damp with the scurrying/of insects…
Rattle & Numb by John Burroughs (Venetian Spider Press) is smart and powerful—it grabbed me by the throat and would not let go. “Suite Melissa”…In my city of lost places/Melissa is on the ventilator/a year to the day after/Geri was removed…
Moroccan Holiday by Lauren Tivey (The Poetry Box Press). In a strange land…in a hoped-for reconciliation…in a starkly drawn understanding of what would be. “In Other Words”…I remember, before all this began, that starswept/midnight in another land, coming over the mountain…
How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons) by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins). If Barbara Kingsolver writes it, I will read it; this book…spectacular! “Cage of Heaven”…Watching the polar bear in his enclosure,/I am thinking of Emily Dickinson,/…
Anansi and Friends by Sally Huggins Toner (Finishing Line Press). This book approaches cancer with a fierce delicacy that compelled me to return again and again to its pages. “Anansi”…The trickster spider has appeared inside my flesh…
What She Was Wearing by Shawn Aveningo-Sanders (The Poetry Box Press). The persistent, probing fingers of memory reveal the poet’s long-ago trauma. “I Make a List”…I trace each step/trying to remember/exactly/how it all happened…
Here, We Bury the Hearts by Dom Fonce (Finishing Line Press). Graveyards and ghosts...visions and voices...these poems crackle with energy and Fonce's sharp insights. Any cemetery/left to its own devices/has no choice but to latch onto your chest/and snatch out/of you both existence and expiration.
Inside Out: Poems on Writing and Reading Poems with Insider Exercises by Marjorie Maddox (Kelsay Books—Daffydowndilly Press). This book is a perfect introduction to writing poetry during this pandemic, when many students are learning from remote locations. “How to Taste a Poem”…The table’s well set, but please/come as you are. No need for white gloves…
Just the Girls: A Kaleidescope of Butterflies; A Drift of Honeybees by Pamela R. Anderson-Bartholet (The Poetry Box Press). Of course, I have to include my chapbook among my favorite books in 2020! “Blue Dress”…I am not the one/in the blue dress the one/with trim ankles, foot cocked/…
