In honour of National Poetry Day, I wanted to do a post on poetry you can read in order to get into the spirit of the day! I know that National Poetry Day was yesterday, but I had so many positive things to say about the poetry I had in mind that I wanted to go ahead and post it anyway – I’ve thought of three YA books and two other poetry anthologies that I wanted to talk about.
Firstly is One by Sarah Crossan. It’s a story about conjoined twins, Grace and Tippi, told in free verse, and has won many awards – most recently that I’m aware of was the YA Book Prize 2016 and the Carnegie Medal 2016. The writing is absolutely beautiful, and it’s such a touching story that I didn’t think this list on poetic works to read would be complete without it.
Next up is some more YA – The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. This novel is an exploration of grief and first love, following Lennie after the death of her sister and how she copes with her feelings. She scatters poems about her feelings around the local area, and these are included in the book. I thought they were a wonderful addition to an amazing book, and I would definitely recommend it, both for the poetry woven into the story and the story itself.
The last piece of YA that I’m going to mention is Haunt Me by Liz Kessler. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to read this book yet, as it only came out yesterday, but it’s one of the October releases that I was looking forward to reading. It’s also about grief and death, and poetry features in the relationship between Erin and both of the brothers – the ghostly one, and the one who is still living.
The World’s Wife is a poetry anthology by Carol Ann Duffy which I read recently and really enjoyed. The poems are about women in relation to famous men – Duffy chose different men from history, mythology, legends, and wrote a poem from the perspective of their wife, sister, or female equivalent. I thought the poetry was wonderfully thought-provoking, and my particular favourite was Mrs Darwin, which I thought was such a clever poem. It’s also really great to read as a feminist!
Finally, I thought I’d mentioned a book of poetry which I haven’t yet had a chance to read, but I’ve heard so many great things about. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur is both poetry and prose, and it deals with some very heavy themes, and has struck me as quite an emotional read. I am very keen to read this book!
These were the books that came to mind for me when I thought of poetry – what books are your personal favourites on National Poetry Day?
Bookends and Endings 
YAY POETRY. I completely forgot to write a thing about it, but I’ve been reading some awesome poetry lately. My friend actually just gave me a copy of The World’s Wife which I haven’t yet got round to reading, so I’m really glad to hear you enjoyed it! Carol Ann Duffy’s poems are great. *nods* And I’m also a fan of Sarah Crossan & The Sky is Everywhere — their style seems so casual but is also really cool asdfjkl.
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Same – I’ve definitely been reading more poetry later. I hope you enjoy it when you get round to reading it! Both Mrs Darwin and Mrs Icarus are very short (5 lines each, I think?) so they’re very easy to read quickly 🙂 I know exactly what you mean – Sarah Crossan and Jandy Nelson are just so talented!
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