Written by Sowmya Gopi
A line or two rhymed, works magic when timed. All the poetry lovers out there, this one is for you. Here are some of the best released poetry books of this year for you to engage in, so dive in and let your heart melt with each verse!
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
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A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. A story that will slam the power of poetry and love back into your heart! The book is about a teen girl named Xiomara Batista. She uses her own poetry and enters into the world of slam poetry, in an attempt to understand her divorced feelings from her religion, her tumultuous relationship with her family, and her own identity and place in this world. You will be rooting for her from the very beginning of the book.
The Dark Interval by Rainer Maria Rilke
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This book collects the poet’s best writings on grief and loss. The result is a profound vision of the mourning process and a meditation on death’s place in our lives, as well as a compilation of sensitive and moving expressions of consolation and condolence. This is a slow and savour read, that requires thought and reflection. Here is a quote:
”When the weight of all my dreams
Is resting heavy on my head
And the thoughtful words of help and hope
Have all been nicely said
But I’m still hurting, wondering if I’ll ever be the one
I think I am–I think I am.”
If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar
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The book captures the experiences of being a young Pakistani Muslim woman in America by braiding together personal and marginalised people’s histories. After being orphaned as a young girl, Asghar grapples with coming-of-age as a woman without the guidance of a mother, questions of sexuality and race, and navigating a world that put a target on her back. This is a beautiful and touching collection about homeland, family, and belonging.
Pillow Thoughts II: Healing the Heart by Courtney Peppernell
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The poet understands that healing is a process, and Pillow Thoughts II eloquently captures the time and experience that one goes through on their journey to peace through restoration. This book is a collection of inspirational and comforting poems for anyone who is mending from a broken heart. Here’s a heart touching quote from it:
“Responsibility can feel heavy and growing up too,
Some moments feel like nobody understands you
What you are going through
Who to trust
Who you want to be
But in the end, all things come together
you’ll see”
Every Little Bad Idea by Caitie McKay
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The women in Skyler Wise’s family have a weakness for bad boys, but not Skyler. She has one thing on her mind, leaving her run-down neighbourhood and going to college. When Skyler’s normally strict mom starts dating again, she feels abandoned. Skyler meets Cole, a boy who makes her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her future. Even though he has a dangerous reputation, Skyler believes she knows the real Cole, the sweet, caring boyfriend who makes her feel seen for once in her life. When Cole starts to change, Skyler realizes that she’ll do anything to keep him around, even if it means giving up her dream and losing the people closest to her.
A beautiful story told in verse about the power of a relationship to heal you or tear you down. Skyler’s desire to be a perfect person, live up to her mother’s expectations, and also want to find out what else in the world is worth discovering is something we can all relate to.
The Colors of the Rain by R.L. Toalson
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Ten-year-old Paulie Sanders hates his name because it also belonged to his daddy-his daddy who killed a fellow white man and then crashed his car. With his mama unable to cope, Paulie and his sister, Charlie, move in with their Aunt Bee and attend a new elementary school. But it’s 1972, and this new school puts them right in the middle of the Houston School District’s war on desegregation. Paulie soon begins to question everything. He hears his daddy’s crime was a race-related one; he killed a white man defending a black man, and when Paulie starts picking fights with a black boy at school, he must face his reasons for doing so. When dark family secrets are revealed, the way forward for everyone will change the way Paulie thinks about family forever.
Readers will connect with Paulie’s honest, emotionally raw voice. Told in stunning verse, this is a heartbreaking story filled with hope, where Paulie’s world falls apart, but he learns to piece it back together as he re-examines what it means to be both a family and a friend.
The Longest Night: A Collection of Poetry from a Life Half Lived by Ranata Suzuki
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Heartbreak and grief touch every soul at least once in a lifetime and the poetess translates those raw emotions into words. A book for anyone who has found themselves separated from someone they love no matter the circumstance, The Longest Night is a companion for the broken heart on the painful emotional journey that is losing someone you love from your life. Its words serve as a comforting reminder, whether you are travelling this road or have recently completed this journey yourself, that despite the loneliness you may sometimes feel along the way none of us walk this path alone.
Not Here by Hieu Minh Nguyen
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Not Here is a flight plan for escape and a map for navigating home; a queer Vietnamese American body in confrontation with whiteness, trauma, family, and nostalgia; and a big beating heart of a book. Nguyen’s poems ache with loneliness and desire and the giddy terrors of allowing yourself to hope for love, and revel in moments of connection achieved.
The Witch Doesn’t Burn In This One by Amanda Lovelace
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2016 Goodreads Choice Award-winning poet Amanda Lovelace returns in the witch doesn’t burn in this one — the bold second book in her “women are some kind of magic” series. The witch: supernaturally powerful, inscrutably independent, and now—indestructible. These moving, relatable poems encourage resilience and embolden women to take control of their own stories. Enemies try to judge, oppress, and marginalize her, but the witch doesn’t burn in this one.
For Everyone by Jason Reynolds
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This is a book for everyone. For every one person. For every one dream. But especially for every one kid. The kids who dream of being better than they are. Kids who dream of doing more than they almost dare to dream. Kids who are like Jason Reynolds, a self-professed dreamer. Jason does not claim to know how to make dreams come true; he has, in fact, been fighting on the front line of his own battle to make his own dreams a reality. He expected to make it when he was sixteen. Then eighteen. Then twenty-five. Now, some of those expectations have been re
