25 Gateway Poets To Start Reading On World Poetry Day

25 Gateway Poets To Start Reading On World Poetry Day So, you typically read fiction, but youve wanted to branch out into poetry lately. Or, you loved poetry in college (especially Byron *swoon*), but youve struggled to find that lightning feeling again.  Or, youve simply been hearing more about poetry because its having a comeback (its definitely having a comeback) and want to see what youre missing. Fantastic. For World Poetry Day, Ive collected 25 of my favorite gateway poets. Poets who dally on both sides of prose and poetry, or those who dig into the lyricality  of language that appeals to our musical side. Finding these gateway poets is important. Because prose is great, but as the incomparable Roxane Gay  recently wrote for the Poetry Foundation: What I do know is that when I read poetry, good poetry, I forget to breathe and my body is suffused with something unnamable?â€"?a combination of awe and astonishment and the purest of pleasures. Reading poetry is such a thrill that I often feel like I am getting away with something. Ready to get away with something? 1. Kim Addonizio   Your entry point:  Tell Me Why: Addonizio writes self-identified poems of loneliness and late nights, liquor and loss. Her poems are rough, but also so strong. And because of lines like this, from What Do Women Want?: When I find it, I’ll pull that garment from its hanger like I’m choosing a body to carry me into this world, through the birth-cries and the love-cries too, and I’ll wear it like bones, like skin, it’ll be the goddamned dress they bury me in. 2. Maya Angelou Your entry point:  And Still I Rise Why: Because its Maya Angelou? Because why havent you? No, but also because she was  that good, and also because of  poems like this: 3. Margaret Atwood Your entry point:  Power Politics Why: Because you love Margaret Atwood. And she writes poetry! And  Power Politics opens with this poem  you already love: You fit into me like a hook into an eye a fish hook an open eye 4. Wendell Berry   Your entry point:  Jayber Crow Why: As both a poet and a novelist, Berry writes poems that linger in between the two. As a active environmentalist and farmer, he also creates poems that speak urgently to our land and the need to protect it. With lines like: You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out perhaps a little at a time. And how long is that going to take? I dont know. As long as you live, perhaps. That could be a long time. I will tell you a further mystery, he said. It may take longer. 5. Billy Collins Your entry point:  The Trouble With Poetry, And Other Poems Why:  Collins is likely  the  gateway poet, as he combines humor and self-deprecation into poems that poke fun at  love and poetry conventions and those awful never-ending creative writing classes. the trouble with poetry is that it encourages the writing of more poetry, more guppies crowding the fish tank, more baby rabbits hopping out of their mothers into the dewy grass. And how will it ever end? 6. Lucille Clifton   Your entry point:  Good Woman Why: Because  Cliftons poetry is inspiring and strong and so wonderful. Because of poems like homage to my hips. 7. Carol Ann Duffy Your entry point:  The Worlds Wife Why: Duffy uses her poems to talk about feminism, family, our lives. And so much  of it joyfully readable and tongue-in-cheek. “Im not the first or the last to stand on a hillock, watching the man she married prove to the world hes a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock. Mrs Icarus” 8. Robert Frost Your entry point: Putting In The Seed Why: Yes, its Robert Frost. But, theres something deeply satisfying about his poetry even now. Plus,  he makes a great gateway poet for those who last read poetry in school. (And getting to some sexier  work thats outside of school-approved curriculum, like Putting in the Seed  is a joy in itself.) 9. Seamus Heaney Your entry point:  Beowulf Why: Heaney was  a highly-regarded poet from Northern Ireland, who also worked heavily in translations. If youre a lover of mythology or oral poetry, Heaney is a great poet to bridge those two places, especially in his  Beowulf  translation. 10. Rupi Kaur   Your entry point: @rupikaur_ Why: Kaurs Instagram shows how  poetry can evolve to join the drawn world and become integrated seamlessly into our daily lives. Many of the  poems she shares here also made it into her collection  Milk and Honey.   this poem is the aftermath of years of esl (english as a second language) classes ????. my tongue still mixes vs and ws. but were embracing it now. ?? A post shared by rupi kaur (@rupikaur_) on Aug 14, 2016 at 6:54pm PDT 11. Sarah Kay   Your entry point:  No Matter The Wreckage   Why: Because Kay is one of the most breath-taking poets alive right now, seriously. Because of lines like: But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air. Because of poems like: 12. Donika Kelly   Your entry point:  Bestiary Why:  Kelly combines a fierce mythology and fantasy in her collection of poems, which use the grotesque to uncover more about our everyday lives. Youll also discover  throwbacks to earlier Romantic poets. Stand-out lines include: What clamor we made in the birthing. What hiss and rumble at the splitting, at the horns and beard, at the glottal bleat. What bridges our back. What strong neck, what bright eye. What menagerie are we. What weve made of ourselves. 13. Li-Young Lee Your entry point: Rose Why: Lee writes beautiful, evocative poetry thats easily picked up by non-poetry readers. Check out these lines from his gorgeous poem From Blossoms: From laden boughs, from hands, from sweet fellowship in the bins, comes nectar at the roadside, succulent peaches we devour, dusty skin and all, comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat. 14. Pablo Neruda   Your entry point:  The Essential Neruda Why: Forever and ever, Neruda is for the romantics. Sure, his poetry has been shared at a million weddings and some of it feels cliche at this point, but he did tap into something profound when it comes to love and connection. Take this from Love Sonnet XI: I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair. Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets. Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps. 15. Aimee  Nezhukumatathil Your entry point:  Lucky Fish Why:  Nezhukumatathil write poetry that is instantly relatable and tongue-in-cheek, but is also lush, with leaping wordplay. She deals directly with hope, love, motherhood, and the possibilities of language  in this collection. With lines like this from Are All the Break-Ups in Your Poems Real? If by real you mean as real as a shark tooth stuck in your heel, the wetness of a finished lollipop stick, the surprise of a thumbtack in your purseâ€" then Yes, every last page is true, every nuance, bit, and bite. Wait. I have made them upâ€"all of themâ€" and when I say I am married, it means I married all of them, a whole neighborhood of past loves. 16. Mary Oliver Your entry point: Dream Work Why: I cant say enough about how much I love Oliver (and a lot of Rioters agree). Olivers poems read like prose, her prose reads like poetry. Shes also the perfect gateway poet for nature lovers. 17. Simon J. Ortiz Your entry point:  Out There Somewhere Why: Influenced by the Beats and his own Native American heritage, Ortiz writes stunningly about our modern alienation from others, our ancestors, and the environment. His poetry is built on connection, and is  a perfect fit for nature lovers, with lines like: We are wordless: I am in you. Without knowing why culture needs our knowledge, we are one self in the canyon. 18. Claudia Rankine Your entry point:  Citizen Why:  Citizen  spans poetry and prose, taking on institutionalized racism in 21st century America through lyrical essays, images, and poetry. With lines like: Yes, and the body has memory. The physical carriage hauls more than its weight. The body is the threshold across which each objectionable call passes into consciousnessâ€"all the unintimidated, unblinking, and unflappable resilience does not erase the moments lived through, even as we are eternally stupid or everlastingly optimistic, so ready to be inside, among, a part of the games. 19. Clint Smith   Your entry point: Counting Descent Why: Smith tackles current issues, along with his love of reading and books, in his poems. And beyond poetry, Smith is also a two-time TED speaker with How to raise a black son in America and The danger of silence. 20. Warsan shire Your entry point: teaching my mother how to give birth Why: Shires poetry appeals directly to our senses, with imagery like ‘the mouth bloody with grapes’, the ‘girl the height of a small wail’ And, her work was quoted in Lemonade.  And, for poems like this: 21. Maggie Smith   Your entry point:  Disasterology   Why: Youve probably already read her Good Bones poem that went viral last year, and with lines like Life is short, though I keep this from my children and I am trying to sell them the world, its no wonder. Now get to more of her smart, stunning poems in her longer collection. 22. Tracy K. Smith   Your entry point:  Life On Mars Why: If you love science fiction and space travel, youll love this meditation on the cosmos  and the death of the poets father, who was an engineer on the Hubble Space Telescope. With lines like: After dark, stars glisten like ice, and the distance they span Hides something elemental. Not God, exactly. More like Some thin-hipped glittering Bowie-beingâ€"a Starman Or cosmic ace hovering, swaying, aching to make us see. 23. Nayyirah Waheed Your entry point: @nayyirah.waheed Why: Like Kaur, Waheed brings poetry to a more modern, connected world with her Instagram account. Follow here there, and then check out her stunning collection  salt.   poem. from salt. by nayyirah waheed. #salt #nejma #literature #nayyirahwaheed A post shared by @nayyirah.waheed on Feb 10, 2017 at 7:17am PST 24. Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib Your entry point:  The Crown Aint Worth Much   Why: Willis-Abdurraqib writes (and performs) poetry about loss, love, and grief. In it, he combines his own personal history with popular culture. And,  for poems like: 25. Jacqueline Woodson   Your entry point:  Brown Girl Dreaming Why:  Woodson combines prose and poetry, especially in this book that shows what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s. With  lines like: Even the silence has a story to tell you. Just listen. Listen.” Want to dip more than just your toe in the water? Check out our other gateway poetry posts: Poetry Books For People Who Are Afraid Of Poetry 10 Sexy Poems To Keep You Warm In The Deep, Dark Night 11 Podcasts For Poetry Lovers Poetry-Genre Pairings: Where To Start If You Love Shout out your favorite gateway poets in the comments!