Okay, so maybe poetry isn't your thing. You don't like thinking about why the curtains are blue or how a tree represents fertility. But you want to like poetry.
Here's the thing that your teachers and professors don't tell you, that's not what poetry is always about. Think of it like music you like: there are songs that require you analyze every lyric to fully understand its intricacy, there are songs that just sound nice, and there are songs that straight up don't sound good but for some reason, you jam out to it anyway. The same applies to poetry.
Before going into recommendations, let me tell you the best way to read poetry and enjoy it: just read it. You don't have to think about the depth of certain lines unless you are inclined to do so. Just read it all the way through and if you feel like it, read it a few more times. There's no right or wrong way to do it, just jump into it and go with the flow.
1. "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong often writes about identity whether it be exploring the complexities of being queer, family dynamics, or being Vietnamese and Vietnamese history. This one in particular incorporates a bit of all that. Though his poetry often has a lot to unpack, one does not need to analyze it to enjoy it; many of his readers just like the way his poetry sounds.
He knows how to take ordinary words and string them into delicate, beautiful phrases like "At home, I threw myself on the bed like a torch & watched the flames gnaw through my mother's house until the sky appeared, bloodshot & massive. How I wanted to be that sky — to hold every flying & falling at once."
2. "Loose Woman" by Sandra Cisneros
If you're looking to read badass feminist poetry written by a woman of color, this is it! In this poem, Cisneros stomps on the societal expectations for women to play subservient, inferior roles. It is the literal poetic form of being a strong independent woman who don't need no man with its powerful words like "Diamonds and pearls / tumble from my tongue. / Or toads and serpents. / Depending on the mood I'm in.
I mean, just punch me in the face while you're at it, Sandra Cisneros.
3. "Broken English" by Aysha Syed
This is a straightforward five line poem; written from an immigrant daughter about her mother. It is so short yet so powerful that it's best to go ahead and read it instead of reading an excerpt.
4. "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou
Powerful Maya Angelou, may she rest in peace, gives a voice to the young black girls who were struggling to find theirs in a very difficult time (late 1900s). She talks about perseverance in a matter-of-fact way, as though there is no other option, no giving up, no other way to continue.
"You may shoot me with your words, / You may cut me with your eyes, / You may kill me with your hatefulness, / But still, like air, I'll rise."
5. "The House was Quiet and the World was Calm" by Wallace Stevens
If you've ever curled up with a good book and immersed yourself in a whole new world, watched the words come to life right before your eyes, and felt the world pause for a moment to let you enjoy this moment, that's what this poem encapsulates.
Stevens ends it with, "And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world, / In which there is no other meaning, itself / Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself / Is the reader leaning late and reading there."
6. "summer, somewhere" by Danez Smith
This is one of Danez Smith's hauntingly beautiful poems that talks about young black boys who have finally found a place after death to feel safe and play outside. It's a bit long but it reads well and holds up a mirror to society. The boys are reborn and given another, more fair shot at life.
A few stanzas in, Smith references Trayvon Martin showing up in this Earthly afterlife and says about him, "we say congrats, you're a boy again! / we give him a durag, a bowl, a second chance."
7. "Ode to Gossips" by Safia Elhillo
Sudanese-American writer Safia Elhillo shares a childhood memory Her writing weaves in and out of a dreamlike quality, the way most people remember their childhoods: like it was a million years away and not entirely sure if it actually happened or if it was all a dream. The opening lines of the poem are: "i was mothered by lonely women some / of them wives some of them with / plumes of smoke for husbands all lonely / smelling of onions & milk all mothers"
