For me, the most exciting part of April is that it’s National Poetry Month. (I know, I should really get out more.)
I’ve been reading and writing poetry since I was 13. To me, poetry has always been the easiest way to express the messy feelings I had as a teenager and continue to have today. The precise language poets use can transport us or allow us to envision a certain object, person or emotion in a way prose often cannot. And there’s no one way to interpret poems. The magic of poetry is that it’s not a puzzle to be solved, but a mirror one can hold up to oneself.
National Poetry Month, which started in 1996, has many goals, but the most important is to remind people that poetry is for everyone. That was my focus in picking these recent poetry collections. I chose poets who engage with poetry in unexpected ways, whether by using unique poetic forms or writing about themes we wouldn’t normally associate with poetry.
Whether you’re interested in sports, motherhood, or world events, not only does Words on the Street have you covered, but poetry as a whole does.
Join The University of Akron Press on Friday, April 24, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., for a pop-up poetry sale inside Bierce Library to celebrate National Poetry Month. All poetry books, including new releases, will be at least 30% off.
“frank: sonnets” by Diane Seuss
Diane Seuss reveals in her first poem that she will be discussing a range of experiences with full honesty, or frankness — hence the title of her collection. This first poem follows Seuss as she drives to Cape Disappointment in Washington and contemplates getting a checkup because of minor health concerns. She ultimately decides against it because she is unsure “how to explain / this restless search for beauty or relief.”
Though sometimes painful to read, Seuss’ dynamic poems do not turn away from the suffering she endured from childhood through motherhood. She tells us about living in poverty in rural Michigan, the glitz and glam of New York City, addiction and love gained and lost. Through her telling, Seuss’ honesty feels refreshing, not overbearing.
Often when we think of sonnets, we think of a staid form and Shakespeare comparing his wife to a summer’s day. While Seuss maintains a lot of the nuts and bolts of the sonnet, such as keeping her poems to 14 lines and including some rhymes, she also updates the form and makes it her own. While most sonnets have one pivotal turn, which is referred to as the volta, Seuss’ sonnets are constantly shifting and changing, which is why they pull you in and refuse to let you escape.
“Bright Dead Things” by Ada Limón
Written by the first Latina U.S. Poet Laureate, “Bright Dead Things” entices us with Ada Limón’s unwavering, though tested, optimism. It shines brightly through Limón’s poems as we watch the speaker fall in love. Somehow, that optimism only wavers slightly when the speaker finds out her mother is dying. Ultimately, we see how events of both the writer’s childhood and adulthood translate into the experiences Limón writes about.
Limón’s collection also centers on place. While some of the collection takes place in New York, most of it is in rural Kentucky, and Limón really connects us to the natural landscape through poems such as “I Remember the Carrots.” That poem provides rich descriptions of the vegetables her family used to grow, especially the “spidery neon tops in the garden’s plot” of the carrots and how Limón would destroy them and create her own “bright dead things.”
Limón is a poet who wears her heart on her sleeve. Her collection feels universal because of the unabashed way she shares her feelings with readers. Even if we have not experienced the world the way Limón has, we can still relate to her through the root emotions she’s expressing, like grief, heartbreak and love.
“The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On” by Franny Choi
We live in a tumultuous world where it feels like reality is constantly shifting. But what if this isn’t the first time we’ve felt this disillusionment? What if the world as we know it has previously ended and reinvented itself?
This is the proposition Franny Choi presents in her second poetry collection, “The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On.” She supports this idea through poems centered on events like the bombing of Hiroshima and the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America. Those moments changed the course of history, just as present-day events seem to rewrite the world we live in.
This collection is an exploration of both history and science fiction as Choi describes upheavals yet to come. In the poem “Field Trip to the Museum of Human History,” Choi describes a group of 12-year-olds visiting a museum that shows them what America has become, described by the guide as “…built on competition / and maintained through domination and control.”
This collection operates on feelings of both outrage and hope. Through describing both the distant and recent past, from the aftermath of Hiroshima to the wildfires that have recently plagued California and Canada, Choi shows the frustration that arises when we see history repeat itself. Choi also reflects on the powerlessness that comes from witnessing atrocity after atrocity and feeling as though you have no sense of control.
However, through it all, she helps us remember that civilization survived myriad past events that felt world-ending. Through her poems, Choi shows us how communities found solace during catastrophe and how we can remain hopeful now.
“how to carry water” by Lucille Clifton
Lucille Clifton was a poet known for her ability to express complex ideas, such as those related to aging and motherhood, with succinct and moving language. This collection includes Clifton’s best poems from 17 previous collections, spanning 45 years, plus 10 newly discovered poems. The brevity of Clifton’s poems gives them punch and emotional depth, allowing her topics of choice to easily stick with readers.
Clifton wrote on a wide range of subjects, and “how to carry water” includes a selection of poems that show just how many different phases Clifton went through as a poet. Clifton, who was the Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1974 until 1985, won the National Book Award for her collection “Blessing the Boats.” She sometimes gave us a glimpse into her personal life with poems that discuss her last period, the death of her mother or how she dealt with expectations that were thrust on her by critics and fellow writers.
In the poem “why some people be mad at me sometimes,” Clifton answers the question simply by saying, “they ask me to remember / but they want me to remember / their memories / and i keep on remembering / mine.”
She also wrote poems that reflect her thoughts on historical events, such as the Kent State University shooting or the horrors of the Middle Passage. Clifton was a poet of many tones, subjects and lenses, and this collection contains nearly every possible angle.
“Be Holding” by Ross Gay
During Game 4 of the 1980 NBA Finals, the Philadelphia 76ers’ Julius Erving, otherwise known as Dr. J, made a legendary reverse layup. The shot not only became the most memorable of his career, but Irving’s grace during the play helped make people see the artistry in basketball. This event, lasting no more than 25 seconds, is the focus of Youngstown native Ross Gay’s book-length poem, “Be Holding.”
Gay zooms in on the memorable shot, describing Dr. J and the other players around him using language that slows down the moment and emphasizes the elegance and skill of his move. One notable comparison he makes happens near the beginning, with Gay writing that despite Erving’s dominance on the court, he treats the basketball gently.
“Doc’s hand becomes an octopus / gripping the ball nothing like prey,” Gay writes. He then zooms out, using the moment to discuss the importance of basketball within our larger culture, the prominence of violence against Black people and the ways in which what we witness affects our outlook on the world.
Most of the time, we don’t think of poetry and sports existing in the same world. However, this collection marries them seamlessly. Gay approaches Dr. J’s iconic shot and the world of basketball with beauty, precision and the kind of care only a true fan could exhibit. This collection is perfect for fans and non-fans alike.
“Instructions Between Takeoff and Landing” by Charles Jensen
Charles Jensen ties together the seemingly unrelated topics of the death of a close family member, the frustrations of living in America and the path of the twin Voyager satellites launched in 1977 whose purpose was to venture as far as they could before they were lost in the oblivion of space.
Jensen’s University of Akron Press-published collection, “Instructions Between Takeoff and Landing” focuses on the uncertainty of life and the unpredictability of the world. In this collection, Jensen reminds us that, like the satellites, it often feels as though there’s no set plan for our lives but that shared experiences are what unite us.
Jensen balances urgency, humor and vulnerability to match his varied subjects. This collection is jam-packed with emotion, cultural analysis and contemplations of identity. Yet it never feels overwhelming. This is because of how Jensen plays with form, or the way each poem is written.
While some of Jensen’s poems are written in free verse, many use genre-bending forms that make us look at subjects from a different perspective. The most prominent form Jensen uses is an exam format. A small section of the poem will be given, and then a quiz on that section will follow with several questions meant to test the reader’s understanding.
Not only does this break up some of the longer, more dense sections of the collection, but it also helps us to reflect on the given subject. One poem that does this is “7. Secret Identity.” It has us sitting with the speaker as he looks at a series of pictures of himself across time and watches the life drain slowly from his eyes as he ages.
After this description, we are provided with prompts, such as “Write a letter to this narrator’s younger self. Apologize for what he’s going to do” and questions like “Why do we allow others to name us when no one knows us better than ourselves?”
