While there are a great many poetry holidays, the month of April is considered National Poetry Month (in the U.S.,, at least), and Global Poetry Day is celebrated on April 25th. So, I encourage you to read (or write) a little poetry in honor of the occasion. Below are a few poetry-related organizations that might interest you followed by a long list of books of poetry.

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Books of Poetry
Novels Written in Verse
- A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman
- Ridiculous Masterpiece by Caitlyn Siobhan Howe
- Beast Stories by Nathan Young
- The Illiad by Homer
- The Odyssey by Homer
- Dante's Inferno by Dante Alighieri
- The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
- The Aeneid by Virgil
- Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
- Paradise Lost by John Milton
- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
- The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
- Metamorphoses by Ovid
- A Season in Hell by Arthur Rimbaud
- The Epic of Gilgamesh by Unknown
- Mahabharata by Vyasa
- The Lusiad by Luís Vaz Camões
- The Solitudes by Luis de Góngora
- Song Of Lawino by Okot P'Bitek
- Sailing Without Ahab by Steve Mentz
- Trilogy by Hilda Doolittle
- When my Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Díaz
- I Remember by Joe Brainard
- Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
- The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley
- The Cattle Raid of Cooley by Anonymous
- Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
- The Lusiads by Luís de Camões
- The Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot
- The Song of Roland by Anonymous
- The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
- Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron
- Hyperion by John Keats
- Idylls of the King by Lord Alfred Tennyson
- Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso
- The Lay of the Last Minstrel by Sir Walter Scott
- Prometheus Unbound by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Kalidasa’s Meghaduta by Kalidasa
- Tales of the Hall by George Crabbe
- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
- Don Juan by Lord Byron
- Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Beowulf by Anonymous
- The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth
- (S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi
- Knucklehead by Tony Keith Jr.
- We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride
- Sunrise Nights by Jeff Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro
- Nothing Burns as Bright as You by Ashley Woodfolk
- Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne
- Baby Teeth by Meg Grehan (LGBTQ)
- Saints of the Household by Ari Tison
- Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Jason Griffin
- The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin by Kip Wilson
- I Can’t Even Think Straight by Dean Atta
- The Truth Project by Dante Medema
- What Goes Up by Christine Heppermann
- The Name She Gave Me by Betty Culley
- Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
- When You Ask Me Where I’m Going by Jasmin Kaur
- An Impossible Thing to Say by Arya Shahi
- Sold by Patricia McCormick
- Solo by Kwame Alexander & Mary Rand Hess
- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
- Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough
- Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
- One Step Forward by Marcie Flinchum Atkins
- Dear Medusa by Olivia A. Cole
- I Am the Swarm by Hayley Chewins
- Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh
- How The Boogeyman Became A Poet by Tony Keith Jr.
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woods
Poetry Anthologies
- 150 Most Famous Poems: Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman and Many More edited by Poetry House
- 100 Poems That Matter edited by The Academy of American Poets
- The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer Through Robert Frost edited by Harold Bloom
- 101 Famous Poems edited by Roy J. Cook
- I Will Not Go edited by Rajiv Mohabir
- Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas edited by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
- Gurlesque edited by Lara Glenum and Arielle Greenberg
- The Norton Anthology of Poetry edited by Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallwothy
- The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop edited by Kevin Coval, Quraysh, Ali Lansana, and Nate Marshall
- Poemhood: Our Black Revival, edited by Amber McBride, Taylor Byas, and Erica Martin
- Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba by Teresa Aranguren, Sandra Barrilaro, and Mohammed El-Kurd
- Objects from April and May by Zena Agha and Hanna Stephens
- Here Poetry Journal edited by Daniel Donaghy, et al.
- Breathing Poetry edited by Shreya Mishra, et. al.
Books by Individual Poets
- The Dream Songs by John Berryman
- S. O. S. Poems 1961-2013 by Amiri Baraka
- Poems of Paul Celan by Paul Celan
- The Complete Poems by Elizabeth Bishop
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon by C. A. Conrad
- Felt by Alice Fulton
- Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
- Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong (LGBTQ)
- There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyonce by Morgan Parker
- Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
- All the Garbage of the World Unite! by Kim Kyesoon
- Words Under The Words by Naomi Shihab Nye
- Bury It by Sam Sax (LGBTQ)
- A Sand Book by Ariana Reienes
- Sleeping with the Dictionary by Haryette Mullen
- Hanging on Our Own Bones by Judy Grahn
- Selected Poems by Rita Dove
- Half Light by Frank Bidart
- Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. by Noor Hindi
- Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd
- Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear by Mosab Abu Toha
- In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish
- The Butterfly's Burden by Mahmoud Darwish
- To All the Yellow Flowers by Raya Tuffaha (LGBTQ)
- Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish
- Exhausted on the Cross by Najwan Darwish
- Forest of Noise: Poems by Mosab Abu Toha
- Water & Salt by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
- Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
- Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear:
- Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha
- Stories from Palestine: Narratives of Resilience by Marda Dunsky
- Before the Next Bomb Drops by Remi Kanazi
- The Tiny Journalist by Naomi Shihab Nye
- Memory for Forgetfulness by Mahmoud Darwish
- Born Palestinian, Born Black by Suheir Hammad
- Life is a Country Album by Nathalie Handal
- Hymns & Qualms: New and Selected Poems and Translations by Taha Muhammad Ali
Books by Individual Poets
- Clock, Star, Rose, Spine by Fran Wilde
- The Night Library of Sternendach by Jessica Levai
- Victory Lap: A Book of Poetry by DeQuan Wren
- Intuition and Anxiety: A Book of Poetry by DeQuan Wren
- Depression, Suicide, Rebirth: A Book of Poetry by DeQuan Wren
- Prince of Poetry: A Book of Poetry by DeQuan Wren
- Freedom and Success: A Short Book of Poetry by DeQuan Wren
- Backpack Poetry by DeQuan Wren
- Conflicted Thoughts by K.C.
- Super Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Poetry After Stonewall by Stephanie Burt (LGBTQ+)
- Dare to Let Go: Poems About Healing and Finding Yourself by Alexandra Vasiliu
- Healing Is a Gift: Poems for Those Who Need to Grow by Alexandra Vasiliu
- Save Me An Orange by Hayley Grace
- She Chose to Love: Empowering Poetry by Yvette Dulo
- Wake Up! You're Alive by Arnold Fox
- Flowers: Celebrate Romantic Love (Book One of 75 Love Poems) by Dean S. Harrison
- Mild and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- All Along You Were Blooming: Thoughts for Boundless Living by Morgan Harper Nichols
- A Thousand Morning: Poems by Mary Oliver
- Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings by Shel Silverstein
- Everlasting: Poetry for Whimsical Souls & Wounded Hearts by Flora de Guadalupe Amezcua
- Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver
- The Tears That Taught Me by Morgan Richard Olivier
- Self Love Poetry: For Thinkers & Feelers by Melody Godfred
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
- Make Believe: Poems for Hoping Again by Victoria Hutchins
- Life After You by Hayley Grace
- Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works by Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Zong! by M. NourneSe Philip
- Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
- Pleasure Dome by Yusef Komunyakaa
- Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
- Map by Wislawa Szymborska
- 'Āina Hānau / Birth Land by Brandy Nālani McDougall
- Poems 1962-2012 by Louise Glück
- Collected Poems by Derek Walcott
- Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
- Mother Water Ash by Nicole Cooley
- The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
- The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
- Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats by William Butler Yeats
- The Poems of Robert Frost by Robert Frost
- Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Alfred Tennyson
- Poems of Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy
- The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
- Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
- The Poetry of Luis Cernuda by Luis Cernuda
- Poems of Federico García Lorca by Federico García Lorca
- Paroles by Jacques Prévert
- The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne by John Donne
- The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake by William Blake
- The Animal is Chemical by Hadara Bar-Nadav
- At the End of the World There Is a Pond by Steven Duong
- Black Bell by Alison C. Rollins
- Bluff by Danez Smith
- Book of Kin by Darius Atefat-Peckham
- Exit Opera by Kim Addonizio
- Far District by Ishion Hutchinson
- Forest of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha
- Geometry of the Restless Herd by Sophie Cabot Black
- Glass Jaw by Raisa Tolchinsky
- I Don't Want to By Understood by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza (LGBTQ)
- I Was Working by Ariel Yelen
- Is There Room for Another Horse on Your Horse Ranch? by Cyrus Cassells
- Leaked Footages by Abu Bakr Sadiq
- Modern Poetry by Diane Seuss
- The Moon that Turns You Back by Hala Alyan
- Mother by M. S. RedCherries
- The Opposite of Cruilty by Steven Leyva
- The Selkie by Morgan Võ
- Sons of Salt by Yaccaira Salvatierra
- 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem by Nam Le
- Transgenesis by Ava Nathaniel Winter (LGBTQ)
- We Contain Landscapes by Patrycja Humienik
- Yard Show by Janice N. Harrington
- If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Sappho
- The Essential Rumi by Rumi
- On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho by Basho
- Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Selected Poetry by John Keats
- Goblin Market and Other Poems by Christina Rossetti
- The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Selected Poems by William Carlos Williams
- The Poems of Marianne Moore by Marianne Moore
- Selected Poems by Anna Akhmatova
- The Selected Poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay
- 100 Selected Poems by E. E. Cummings
- Selected Poems by Langston Hughes
- Selected Poems by W. H. Auden
- New and Collected Poems 1931-2001 by Czeslaw Milosz
- Collected Poems by Robert Hayden
- The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks by Gwendolyn Brooks
- View with a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska
- Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery
- The Complete Poetry by Maya Angelou
- Diving Into the Wreck by Adreinne Rich
- The Poetry of Derek Walcott, 1948-2013 by Derek Walcott
- Ariel by Sylvia Plath
- The Collected Poems by Audre Lorde
- Opened Ground by Seamus Heaney
- The Wild Iris by Louise Glück
- Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems by Yusef Komunyakaa
- What the Living Do: Poems by Marie Howe
- How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems, 1975–2002 by Joy Harjo
- Selected Poems by Rita Dove
- Given Sugar, Given Salt by Jane Hirshfield
- Urban Tumbleweed: Notes From a Tanka Diary by Harryette Mullen
- Picture Bride by Cathy Song
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- Monument: Poems New and Selected by Natasha Trethewey
- Book of Hours: Poems by Kevin Young
- Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
- Bestiary: Poems by Donika Kelly
- Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
- The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda Gorman and Oprah Winfrey
- Change Sings: A Children's Anthem by Amanda Gorman and Loren Long
- Something, Someday by Amanda Gorman and Christian Robinson
- Girls on the Rise by Amanda Gorman and Loveis Wise
- Complete Writings by Phyllis Wheatley
- The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe
- Migration: New and Selected Poems by W. S. Merwin
- Selected Poems by Frank O'Hara
- The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda
- Passing Through by Stanley Kunitz
- The Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Paper and Stick by Priscilla Wathington
- Coriolis by A.D. Lauren-Abunassar
- Oxygen is Not for the Dead by Heba Abu Nada
- Writings on the Wall: Inspirational Poems & Quotes by Robert Hensel
- Grape Leaves: A Centry of Arab-American Poetry by Gregory Orfalea
- I Don't Want This Poem to End by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Mohammad Shaheen
- In Jerusalem and Other Poems by Tamim Al-Barghouti
- So What: New and Selected Poems by Taha Muhammad Ali
- Kaan and Her Sisters by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Sources
- Lanternfish Press: https://lanternfishpress.com/?category=Poetry
- Best Poetry Books (Buyers Guide): https://buyersguide.org/poetry-book/t/best?msclkid=9d8a41da27c71260222a26349b08d6c5&m=e&d=c&c=82463756337321&oid=kwd-82464700360043:loc-190&qs=books%20of%20poetry&lp=51639&li=&nw=o&nts=1&tdid=15910899
- 15 Great Poetry Books, Recommended by Poets by Sarah Jinee Park (Reader's Digest): https://www.rd.com/list/best-poetry-books/
- The Greatest Books: https://thegreatestbooks.org/the-greatest/poetry/books/page/4
- Best New Poetry Books (New York Public Library) https://www.nypl.org/books-more/recommendations/poetry-2025/adults
- Must Read Poetry (Book Riot): https://bookriot.com/must-read-poetry-books/
- Best Poetry Books (Reedsy): https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/best-poetry-books
- The Rookie Jurist: https://therookiejurist.com/best-classic-novels-in-verse-to-read/
- Epic Reads: https://www.epicreads.com/blog/novels-written-in-verse/
- Spotlighting Palestinian Authors and Books about Palestine (Underground Bookshelf): https://www.underground-bookshelf.com/resources/2397400_spotlighting-palestinian-authors-and-books-about-palestine
- Books with Disability Representation: Spina Bifida (Underground Bookshelf): https://www.underground-bookshelf.com/resources/2088666_books-with-disability-representation-spina-bifida
- YA Books with Black Representation (Underground Bookshelf): https://www.underground-bookshelf.com/resources/1978907_ya-books-with-black-protagonists
- Books by Arab or Arab American Authors (Underground Bookshelf): https://www.underground-bookshelf.com/resources/1765381_books-by-arab-or-arab-american-authors
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