Poetry collections always make lovely gifts for the reader. Books can be hard to buy as gifts, especially for readers as you often don’t know what they love, or what they’ve already read. But a collection of poetry is like a garden you can wander through the gate of whenever you like, spending a few moments or a few hours!
When many of us think of poetry we often think of stuffy tomes and undecipherable old English but modern poetry isn’t like that at all, and to show you, we’ve put together a list of 5 poetry collections, all released in recent years and all bright, modern, relatable and engaging and by poets who are very much still alive.
Check these out!
You Took The Last Bus Home – Brian Bilston
Fans of our social media pages may already have heard of Brian Bilston. Bilston is the Twitter Poet Laureate as far as we’re concerned and he writes fun and visually pleasing poetry about all sorts, the world, life, and buses…. Apparently! You Took the Last Bus Home is out in paperback on Thursday and I’m really hoping it’s in my Christmas stocking!
Milk and Honey – Rupi Kaur
Social Media seems to lend itself to poetry, and here’s another poet that make her name on social platforms, amassing 1.3 million Instagram followers. Milk and Honey is a New York Times bestseller and has already sold almost 100,000 copies. The collection contains themes of violence, abuse, love, loss and femininity, and the very least you should do right now is follow Rupi on Instagram!
A Poem for Every Day of the Year – Edited by Allie Esiri
This one is a collection from various poets and as it contains a poem for each day of the year, we think it would make the perfect Christmas gift. There are 366 poems in all and the collection is funny, thoughtful, inspiring and empowering.
A Poem for Every Day of the Year US
A Poem for Every Day of the Year UK
Her – Pierre Alex Jeanty
Her is specifically a collection about women, their strengths and beauties. Written by Pierre Alex Jeanty whose style is short and punchy with instant flow. This collection was released back in February, but Her II came out in August so there’s even a follow up collection too!
Bantam – Jackie Kay
Jackie Kay is the Scottish Makar right now, that’s a kind of bard or poet laureate for the uninitiated, and her collection Bantam was released last month to much applause. The poetry in Bantam is all connected, bringing three generations into sharp focus in a collection that sings of what connects us, and what divides us in the times of uncertainty in which we live.
Birmingham Poet, Benjamin Zephaniah dies, aged 65
QUIZ! On a Poet’s Birthday – Remember by Christina Rossetti
