Since graduating from college, I have had so much more time to devote to reading things that I genuinely enjoy. I have always loved poetry, as it is an art form that is expressive of the self and the soul. Poets, no matter what their life story might be, always seem to have some aspect of their writing that is relatable to the reader. Why is that? Is it because they are real people with real problems and real experiences? Can we, as regular people, relate to their struggle and see the beauty in their truth? Maybe. I have read a vast amount of poetry books, but if I had to pick 5 to read for the rest of my life, here's what I could choose.

1. I Love My Love (Reyna Biddy)

A book about love - self-love, romantic love, family love, friendship love, and all the other forms of love in between. The way she writes about love makes you think about how to love yourself and others to the best of your ability. Biddy makes the reader crave all of the emotions that love invokes, both the good and the bad.

2. HER. (Pierre Alex Jeanty)

A book of appreciation... An appreciation of another's internal and external beauty, flaws and all. Jeanty makes the reader desire someone who will appreciate, love, and fight for them. HER. is a book of observations that became a tremendous form of art.

3. Born to Love, Cursed to Feel (Samantha King)

A book about the self. Internal and external struggles. Relationships. Life. Love. Depression. Anxiety. Things that so many people experience but never get to put into words. King eloquently and gracefully writes about who she's been and who she is now, and that sort of personal narrative is relatable and enables the reader to delve deeper into themselves.

4. Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately (Alicia Cook)

A creative book of feelings and how multifaceted they can be. The first half of the book is filled with full-length poems, along with the song that was playing when the poem was written. Then, halfway through the book, you reach the remixes, which utilize the same poems with some edits. Cook's book is a true masterpiece that is relatable to anyone who has ever been in love, who has ever lost someone special, or experienced any sort of trial or tribulation.

5. beautiful CHAOS (Robert M. Drake)

A book of love and loss. The poems by Drake are often short and sweet, yet they still manage to elicit an array of feelings and thoughts. His poems are relatable, but still ring so true and personal to his specific story.

"Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words." - Edgar Allan Poe