Hundreds of poetry books and thousands of poems are published in the United States each year. Students and friends often ask me about what poems to read. Listed below are contemporary American poetry books and individual poems that I've enjoyed. For the sake of convenience, I'm considering the year 1971, when The Book of Nightmares was published, as the first year of the “contemporary” period.

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BOOKS

TEN CONTEMPORARY CLASSICS

Limiting myself to one book per poet (no collected or selected editions), I've listed ten books of contemporary poetry that I consider important, landmark editions. So as to guard against the allure of newness, I've maintained a rule that the book must have been published at least ten years ago (thus, before 1988).

GOOD BOOKS BY FRIENDS AND TEACHERS

 

The following books are by personal friends, friends in the literary community, and former teachers. While I'm limiting myself to one volume per author, many have published more than one volume. I've chosen those which may best assist students in their writing.

Limiting myself to one book per poet (no collected or selected editions) and without repeating poets from the above lists, I also recommend these books of poems.

Neither World	Ralph Angell
Sweet Home, Saturday Night	David Baker
Golden State	Frank Bidart
Emplumada	Lorna Dee Cervantes
Thomas and Beulah	Rita Dove
My Alexandria	Mark Doty
What Is Beyond Us	Karen Fish
The Country Between Us	Carolyn Forche
Sensuous Math	Alice Fulton
Moon Crossing Bridge	Tess Gallagher
Bitter Angel	Amy Gerstler
In Mad Love and War	Joy Harjo
The Night Parade	Ed Hirsch
Of Gravity & Angels	Jane Hirshfield
Sweet Ruin	Tony Hoagland
Star Ledger	Linda Hull
Walt Whitman in Hell	TR Hummer
Dien Cai Dau	Yusef Komunyakaa
The Incognito Lounge	Denis Johnson
Transparent Gestures	Rodney Jones
Elegy	Larry Levis
The Unbeliever	Lisa Lewis
The City in which I Love You	Li-Young Lee
Quiet Money	Robert McDowell
Great America	James McManus
Four Good Things	James McMichael
Flood	William Matthews
Rapture	Susan Mitchell
Rainbow Remnants at Rock Bottom Ghetto Sky	Thylias Moss
Skylight	Carol Muske
First Figure	Michael Palmer
History of My Heart	Robert Pinsky
Summer Celestial	Stanley Plumly
New Dark Ages	Donald Revell
Teodoro Luna's Two Kisses	Albertos Rios
Wise Poison	David Rivard
The Roundhouse Voices	Dave Smith
Campo Santo	Susan Wood
Searching for the Ox	Lewis Simpson
Annonciade	Elizabeth Spires
Picture Bride	Cathy Song
To a Blossoming Pear Tree	James Wright
In the Bank of Beautiful Sins	Robert Wrigley

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POEMS

 

Students often benefit from imitating good model poems. Here are several different categories of individual poems that students may want to read in order to see how other poets approached certain formal and contextual problems. Each category is limited to one poem by an individual poet and no more than twenty poems total. Obviously, some poems may apply in other categories

HIGHLY IMAGISTIC POEMS

There are many essential elements to any well-written poem: sound, voice, structure, cadence, etc. But imagery is probably the first thing a new poet should attend to, because a strong concrete image is almost always the foundation of a good poem. Accordingly, students should also be concerned with specific details and accuracy. Contemporary poetry is replete with superb imagistic poems. Here are a few with particularly arresting images.

Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump	David Bottoms
Pastoral	Norman Dubie
A Green Crab's Shell	Mark Doty
A Summer Song Cycle	Kathy Fagan
Fresh Stain	Tess Gallagher
The August Possessions	T.R. Hummer
His Body	Sandra McPherson
The Traveling Onion	Naomi Shihab Nye
Hitch Haiku	Gary Snyder
Vegetables I and II	Ruth Stone

POEMS WITH RELATIVES

Some of our most primal writing involves the subject of relatives. Sometimes writing about a relative is a way to write about the self. On balance, it's usually best to avoid excessive demonizing or mythologizing of the relative-but, as Plath showed us, not always. A tip: Students writing about childhood experiences may want to avoid using childlike appellations such as ”mommy,“ “daddy,” “mom,” and “dad.” “Mother” and “father” are much safer. When writing such a poem, always try to remember that the poem may be about childhood but it is written for a mature, adult reading audience.

Identifying Things	Wendy Barker
The Dance of the Sheets	Angie Estes
My Grandmother in Paris	Sandra Gilbert
Grandfather	Michael Harper
Death, the last visit	Marie Howe
Compound Light	T.R. Hummer
Little Sleep's-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight	Galway Kinnell
Starlight	Philip Levine
Salvage Operations	Paul Mariani
Rainbow	Susan Mitchell
Poems for My Mothers and Other Makers of Asafetida	Thylias Moss
The Moment	Sharon Olds
Summer Celestial	Stanley Plumly
Hush	David St. John
Venus in the Tropics	Louis Simpson
The Bath	Gary Snyder
Where Are the Waters of Childhood?	Mark Strand
How Aunt Maud Took to Being a Woman	Ruth Stone
The Bed	Gary Young
Full Circle	Jonathan Holden

NARRATIVE POEMS

Very simply, narrative poems tell a story. Many narrative poems may actually weave a number of stories together at the same time. Intriguing tales, a compelling voice, and good associative transitions mark most narrative poems.

The Back Room	Karen Fish
In the Underground Garage	Ed Hirsch
The Accident	Lisa Lewis
Bystanders	William Matthews
A Story	Susan Mitchell
Palindrome	Lisel Meuller
Infidelity	Stanley Plumly
The Runner	Louis Simpson
The Little Boys	Elizabeth Spires

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SEQUENTIAL POEMS

As critics M.L. Rosenthal and Sally M. Gall have pointed out in their book The Modern Poetic Sequence, the sequence may be the most fruitful poetic form of the twentieth century. A sequence is typically characterized by separate but related sections of one poem. These sections are often enumerated or otherwise marked. The sequential form is a kind of verse collage, allowing poets to take spatial and temporal leaps without using more conventional transitions. In general, a sequential poem requires one or more narrative themes to carry the reader through to completion.

He Kept On Burning	Ai
Sweet Home, Saturday Night	David Baker
Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway	Lorna Dee Cervantes
Atlantis	Mark Doty
Thomas and Beulah	Rita Dove
Elegies for the Ochre Deer on the Walls at Lascaux	Norman Dubie
The Love Sequence	Sandra Gilbert
Fortress	Brenda Hillman
The Book of Nightmares	Galway Kinnell
Debridement	Michael Harper
Marathon	Louise Gluck
Kicking the Leaves	Donald Hall
In San Antonio	Andrew Hudgins
Smash and Scatteration	James McManus
Four Good Things	James McMichael
History of My Heart	Robert Pinsky
Twenty-One Love Poems	Adrienne Rich
The City of Women	Sherod Santos
The Muse of Distance	Alan Williamson

MID-LENGTH AND LONG POEMS

For the sake of definition, let's say that a mid-length poem may be two or three pages long. A “long” poem is, therefor, three pages or longer. As with sequential poems, longer poems often require students to employ one or more narrative themes to compel the reader through to closure.

Syringa	John Ashbery
Snow White at the Convention Finds the Bear	Wendy Barker
The Promise	Toi Derricotte
Live Oaks	Nancy Eimers
Regalia for a Black Hat Dancer	Robert Hass
The Venetian Vespers	Anthony Hecht
Grafik	Juan Felipe Herrera
A Daily Glory	Mark Jarman
Talking Richard Wilson Blues . . .	Denis Johnson
Fresh Air	Kenneth Koch
Quarter to Six	Dorianne Laux
The Cleaving	Li-Young Lee
Elegy with a Thumbful of Water in the Cage	Larry Levis
Quiet Money	Robert McDowell
Self-Portrait with Two Faces	Susan Mitchell
The Hand of God with a Few Bright Flowers	William Olsen
The Tower of Pisa	Cathy Song
Blue Ridge	Ellen Bryant Voight
The Southern Cross	Charles Wright

POEMS ABOUT THE PSYCHE UNDER PRESSURE

Modern and contemporary poetry is filled with poems about anger, anxiety, and paranoia. Here are a few examples.

Cruelty	Ai
St. Augustine	T.R. Hummer
The Monk's Insomnia	Denis Johnson
Curriculum Vitae	Lawrence Joseph
Bridget	Lisa Lewis
Trying to Talk with a Man	Adrienne Rich
St. Thomas Aquinas	Charles Simic

ECKPHRASTIC POEMS

Based on Breughel's Icarus, “Musee des Beaux Arts” by British poet W.H. Auden is perhaps the best known twentieth century eckphrastic poem. An echphrastic poem is inspired by a work of visual art. Writing the eckphrastic poem often requires that students practice what Keats called “negative capability,” the process of imagining one's self in a situation one has not necessarily experienced

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror	John Ashbery
To Bessie Drennan	Mark Doty
Preparation for the Wedding	Lorrie Goldensohn

GENDER POEMS

Like writing relative poems, writing gender poems can be an especially powerful experience. The gender poem usually describes the forces that shape feminine and masculine behavior.

On Climbing Trees, For Louisa May Alcott	Wendy Barker
Aim	Bruce Bond
What He Hates/What He Loves	Sandra Gilbert
In Your Bad Dream	Richard Hugo
My Manhood	Rodney Jones
The Ditch/td>	Michael Ryan
The Pornography Box	Dave Smith

ELEGY

The elegy is one of the oldest and most popular forms. Elegies mourn the loss of a person or, sometimes, a state of being. When writing elegies, students should try to avoid excessive bathos, that is, overdone or insincere expressions of sentiment.

Almost Blue	Mark Doty
Two of Anything	Tess Gallagher
November 26, 1992: Thanksgiving at Sea Ranch: Contemplating Metempsychosis	Sandra Gilbert
Last Fugue for Chet	Linda Hull
Elegy in Advance	Vern Rutsala
Elegy	William Stafford
Le Petit Salvie	CK Williams

PROSE POEMS

Prose poems do not make use of the poetic line-and accordingly often make poets appreciate the line that much more. While the line may provide a helpful tension in a conventional poem, the prose poem must find a substitute way of maneuvering the reader into and through the body of the poem. Though not at all points as taut as the typical lineated poem, prose poems can surprise readers if poets find devices that accentuate theme and voice.

In the Hinglai Desert	Chitra Divakaruni
Crystal Lake	Joy Harjo
A Story of the Body	Robert Hass
An Anointing	Thylias Moss

POLITICAL POEMS

Political poems are usually concerned with some kind of social injustice. But such poems are difficult to write because they are vulnerable to excessive didacticism. If you just have to get something off your chest, write an editorial or a letter to the editor. As Jonathan Holden has told us, the best political poems—like most poems of any kind—are usually those in which the author discovers what he or she needs to say during the act of writing, not those that contain a rigidly pre-determined message.

Mississippi Confessional	T.R. Hummer
The Lynching	Thylias Moss
The Colonel	Carolyn Forche
On the Lawn at the Villa	Lewis Simpson

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SURREAL POEMS

Surreal poems typically render a dream-like state of mind. A surreal image is often powerful because it upsets the objects of the world in a way which we understand to be impossible. Surreal poems often impress by virtue of surprise. Robert Bly has told us that some surreal poems—often called “deep image poems”—may “connect” with the reader's unconscious mind. No matter what type of surreal poem you are writing, the rules of "objective reality" do not adhere. There is, nonetheless, one poetic rule which students would do well to remember. A surreal poem should have a clear connection to the real world. A surreal poem which is nothing but surreal may seem irrelevant to all but the writer.

A Hollow Tree	Robert Bly
Deer Dancer	Joy Harjo
The Boy of Seventeen	Juan Felipe Herrera
Summer Doorway	W.S. Merwin
Iris	David St. John

LOVE POEMS

Everybody knows that a love poem usually pays romantic homage to a lover. Like relative poems and elegies, love poems are vulnerable to excessive sentimentalizing. Students should remember that sentiment is good but sentimentality is not. Keep in mind that the love poem has a public audience; make sure that the poem speaks to readers who don't know anything about the people in the relationship. Avoid cuteness. When writing about sex or desire, avoid the obvious clichés.

Twenty-year Marriage	Ai
The Promise	Toi Derricotte
Days of 1981	Mark Doty
Radio Sky	Norman Dubie
Desire	Kathy Fagan
Incomprehensibly	Tess Gallagher
Before Sex	Amy Gerstler
All the Princes of Heaven	Patricia Goedicke
1973	Jane Hirshfield
Adult Joy	Brenda Hillman
Fresh Air	Kenneth Koch
The Lovers	Dorianne Laux
Chivalry	Carol Muske
The Wellspring	Sharon Olds
Lost Innocence of the Potato Givers	Lucia Perillo
The Shore	David St. John
Familiar Story	Alan Shapiro
Aubade	Karl Shapiro
Anniversary	Hannah Stein
The Compliment	Sue Ellen Thompson
For a Thirtieth Anniversary	David Wagoner
Aubade	Robert Wrigley

PHILOSOPHICAL POEMS

It's said that poems about politics, philosophy, and religion (and sometimes sexual love) are the most difficult to write. On one hand, most writers are opinionated and the poem can become a soap-box lecture. On the other hand, the language we associate with these topics is already loaded with cliché. Philosophical and religious (or spiritual) poems usually attempt to consider big questions, often having to do with locating meaning, purpose, and identity in a mysterious universe. Philosophical poems can get boring fast. It might be best for students never to start off writing a philosophical poem, because the tendency is to become overly prosaic and sententious—i.e., dull. Still, there are poets who have written very fine poems that manage to marshal strong imagery and fresh language in the service of metaphysical inquiry.

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror	John Ashbery
Coming Through December	Wendy Barker
This Life	CG Hanzlicek
Meridian Plinth	Brenda Hillman
At The End Of The Day I Listen to Bach	Jacqueline Marcus
Berryman	W.S. Merwin
What We Don't Know About Each Other	Lawrence Raab
Searching for the Ox	Louis Simpson
The Distance to the Ocean	Hannah Stein

ENIGMA POEMS

I borrow the term “enigma poem” from critic Roger Cardinal. With their roots in the work of Gertrude Stein, enigma poems consistently upset conventional referentiality. Grammar sabotages itself. First you understand what's being said, and then you don't. But the enigmatic passage usually sounds like it ought to mean something. Just shy of a type of verse called LANGUAGE poetry, enigma poetry helps to suggest the metaphysical uncertainties of contemporary life. While it can be intriguing, I suggest beginning students forego this kind of poetry until they are well-practiced in conventional, referential (or “symbolic”) writing.

Houseboat Days	John Ashbery
Autumn Leaves	Jimm Cushing
First Figure	Michael Palmer
St. Lucie's Day	Donald Revell

COMIC POEMS

The good humorous poem is never merely humorous; the comic component always underscores the poem's serious intent. Because the poem can rely too much on a punch line or because it spends too much energy on puns, it's not easy to write good comic poetry. There are, however, many fine examples of funny contemporary poems.

The Automobile	Russell Edson
Getting Fired, or “Not Being Retained”	Sandra Gilbert
The Stevenson Poster	Lewis Simpson
Bazooks	Ruth Stone

LETTER POEMS

I think it was Robert Pinsky who said we tend to express ourselves more intimately in a letter than we do face-to-face. Students writing letter poems should make sure that the poem is accessible in its details to the general reader. Avoid prosaic verse. Tell a good story. Whether it's true or not, mean it.

A Grandfather's Last Letter	Norman Dubie
Not Going to New York: A Letter	Robert Hass
Letter to Mantsch from Havre	Richard Hugo
Thanksgiving	Jacqueline Marcus
Discoveries, Mid-Letter	Sandra McPherson
Paula Becker to Clara Westhoff	Adrienne Rich

BASEBALL POEMS

Baseball is a passion of mine. Here are a few baseball poems for fans of the game. Of course very few good baseball poems are ultimately about the game itself.

How I Learned English	Gregory Djanikian
A Personal History of the Curveball	Jonathan Holden
Letter to Mantsch from Havre	Richard Hugo
Adam's Dad Teaches the Kids to Play Ball	Dorianne Laux
Season Wish	Linda Mizejewski
The Roundhouse Voices	Dave Smith

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