Marvelous nature poems, sentences that ground you in the world of growth, life, and abundance. Read these outside, with your lungs full of fresh air and your ears full of birdsong.
Wickerwork by Christian Lehnert, (List Price: $18, Archipelago, 9781962770248, April 2026)
Reviewed by Emily, Thank You Books in Birmingham, AL
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Haleh Liza Fafori’s translation of 57 poems from Rumi, a poet from the 13th century. The themes are very timely, focusing on materialism versus love, spiritual, and moral growth. I think a few excepts show the depth that is available in this book…. “Criminal to let clouds hide you. Unveil your face and brighten our dim world”…. “If Love’s wine hasn’t seeped into your skull by then, go to the kitchen in Love’s house and lick the plates lovers left behind”.
Water by Rumi, (List Price: $14.95, NYRB Classics, 9781681379166, April 2025)
Reviewed by Jim, Sundog Books in Santa Rosa Beach, FL
British poet laureate Armitage took years to research and perfect his retelling of this millennia-old ur-poem, and it was worth the wait. Told in a driving tetrameter rhythm, his free-flowing translation may not please purists, but we are treated to both an introduction AND a translator’s note, which are as accessible and interesting as the text itself, explaining his choices and setting the work in historic context. Hypnotic heroic feats mingle with proto-bromance, featuring the earliest known account of the Great Flood, in this classic myth which is as mesmerizing today as it must have been thousands of years ago.
Gilgamesh by Simon Armitage, (List Price: $25, Liveright, 9781631496684, April 2026)
Reviewed by Doron, Octavia Books in New Orleans, LA
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Opening with the death of almost 200 horses, this collection doesn’t pull any punches. Skeets explores the beauty of living in the Navajo Nation without ignoring the grief. The tragedy is even made an active participant in the pleasures that are still found. He finds a way to reflect these things in the layout of the text and use of punctuation as well, demonstrating an impressive understanding of poetry both as a visual and oral tradition. Everything is purposeful and heartfelt. An important read for everyone, these poems are a striking meditation on the end of the world as we know it and the creation of a new one in the process.
Horses by Jake Skeets, (List Price: $18, Milkweed Editions, 9781639551521, March 2026)
Reviewed by Oliver, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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This beautiful poetry collection looks at the connection between mind and body and the ways our sense of self shifts over time. Moving through questions of memory, meaning, and connection, it asks how time shapes who we are and how we are seen. A quiet, powerful read that stays with you.
A Suit or a Suitcase by Maggie Smith, (List Price: $25, Washington Square Press, 9781668090053, March 2026)
Reviewed by Sandra, Hills and Hamlets Bookshop in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia
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The poetry of Billy Collins never disappoints! A must read this holiday season. Even though I’m a cat person, I couldn’t put this book down. Readers will savor each and every poem along with the dog illustrations by Pamela Sztybel. A joyful read about man’s best friend.
Dog Show: Poems by Billy Collins, (List Price: $20, Random House, 9780593979419, November 2025)
Reviewed by Sheri Bancroft, novel. in Memphis, Tennessee
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House’s collection of poetry is full of beauty, of perfect lines that punch one in the gut and evoke profound feelings. His imagery immerses readers in the South, capturing every day life experiences, yet his poems are also memories of family love and sacrifice, of loss and grief. This collection inspires reflection on how we relate to the past, on how we grieve the loss of people and place, on how nature soothes us in troubled times, on how deeply we love. All These Ghosts is a remarkable gift to the world.
All These Ghosts by Silas House, (List Price: $22.95, Blair, 9781958888698, September 2025)
Reviewed by Lera Shawver, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
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So glad that the former Kentucky Poet Laureate has a poetry collection at last! As with his fiction, House’s work resonates most deeply the closer he stays to his Appalachian roots. With poems like “Double Creek Girl” and “Lunchlady” he transports the reader to a hardscrabble start that was tough but also suffused with the joy of family ties and the beauty of nature. Poems about queerness, protest, timesickness and soup beans all exist side by side in this collection, as in life.
All These Ghosts by Silas House, (List Price: $22.95, Blair, 9781958888698, September 2025)
Reviewed by Sam Miller, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky
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I loved this collection, which runs the gamut of thoughts on politics, justice, early family life and upbringing, personal history, everyday small moments to her life as a professor at and pride for Virginia Tech. I marveled over many of the pieces here, as Giovanni’s emotional and philosophical depth shone through the words and images. I’ve loved her poetry for a long time, but the offerings in this book revealed more of her inner world as an older woman who had seen and experienced so much. She found joy and beauty in small pleasures, relationships, honest work, and words. I love how she signs many of her letters “Poetically, Nikki.” What a force of passion and wisdom she was. A great gift for the poetry collector!
The New Book by Nikki Giovanni, (List Price: $26, William Morrow, 9780063447523, September 2025)
Reviewed by Sarah Goldstein, Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia
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In the poems of The New Economy, author Gabrielle Calvocoressi pours themself out in the repeated image of the cistern: a way to hold themselves and the weight they have been carrying. Readers who carry duality in their own body will resound with poems brimming with exquisite lines like: “I want a full opening / absurd in its bounty” and “Sometimes the things / that matter to you won’t matter to anyone but you. And that’s redemption.” Calvocoressi has once again written a book with heart, full of attention to the line and the body, that will fill a reader with deep feelings–among them, gratitude and hope.
The New Economy by Gabrielle Calvocoressi, (List Price: $22, Copper Canyon Press, 9781556597213, October 2025)
Reviewed by Julia Paganelli Marin, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas
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Jasminne Mendez teaches an important tale of standing up for what you believe in and against those who seek to bring you down. The heroine, Yuliete Lopez, holds a strong sense of justice, thanks in part to the activism efforts of her older brother. She and her friends work diligently to raise awareness about the discrimination she has faced in theater, and protest the banning of books at the school.
The Story of My Anger by Jasminne Mendez, (List Price: $19.99, Dial Books, 9780593531877, September 2025)
Reviewed by Molly Reinhardt, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina
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Pulled from her previous six collections and spanning her 20-year career as a poet, Startlement will do just that with its precise beauty, lush and generous language, its wisdom about what it is to be living in this world. If you only buy one book of poetry this year, you’ll be glad it’s this!
Startlement by Ada Limón, (List Price: $28, Milkweed Editions, 9781639550517, September 2025)
Reviewed by Johanna Hynes, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky
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Simultaneously experimental and universal, these poems focus on heritage, fertility, displacement, and so much more. At turns fierce, at others tender, this collection is one I’ll want to devour again and again.
The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan, (List Price: $17.99, Ecco, 9780063317475, March 2024)
Reviewed by Nath Mayes, Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky
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Naturalistic and atmospheric, these poems absolutely enveloped me.
After Image by Jenny George, (List Price: $17, Copper Canyon Press, 9781556596957, October 2024)
Reviewed by Andrew Preston, Coffee Tree Books in Morehead, Kentucky
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This is the kind of poetry collection you keep tucked in your pocket for when you need it–a poem a day keeps the dread about societal collapse away! Curated by the Instagram account of the same name (an Audre Lorde quote), Poetry Is Not a Luxury is a lovely, intentional anthology of poems divided by season, diverse in form and theme, featuring pretty much every poet I’ve ever studied and/or admired. These compact, comforting poems are accessible but substantial. I can see myself revisiting this book many times, when in need of a little inspiration!
Poetry Is Not a Luxury by Anonymous, (List Price: $24, Washington Square Press, 9781668062555, May 2025)
Reviewed by Julia Lewis, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia
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