Celebrate National Poetry Month with Our Favorite Poetry Books of 2021

By NYPL Staff
March 31, 2022

Every April we celebrate National Poetry Month and the power of verse to illuminate the world through just a few choice words. These 10 titles from NYPL's Best Books of 2021 list demonstrate poetry's range and power, from investigating personal identities and histories to analyzing its own forms to encompassing shared global events and eras. 

  • Doppelgangbanger: Poems

    by Cortney Lamar Charleston

    Charleston explores masculinity, race, and community in this explosive and melodic collection.

  • Blue book cover with Extremely Lightweight Guns and Nikki Moustaki written on it

    Extremely Lightweight Guns: Poems

    by Nikki Moustaki

    In this surreal and singular collection, Moustaki writes about terrorism, an aging dressmaker, and post-apocalyptic chickens with equal urgency and inspiration.

  • Book cover with a man, with frank: sonnets and diane seuss written on it

    frank: sonnets

    by Diane Seuss

    In this modern beat poetry book, the sonnet form interrogates itself as part of a visceral and brilliant stream-of-consciousness narrative.

  • Book cover with blue dots over two figures in hazmat suits, says "If God Is a Virus"

    If God Is a Virus: Poems

    by Seema Yasmin

    Doctor-poet Seema Yasmin crafts a provocative chorus of experiences and observations in the medical field while investigating an Ebola outbreak.

  • A book cover with a blue and red pattern and the portrait of a man, "Mama Phife Represents" written on it.

    Mama Phife Represents:

    by Cheryl Boyce-Taylor

    Writer and activist Boyce-Taylor spills her heartbreak, pain, celebration, and pride onto the page after the untimely death of her son Malik, known as Phife Dawg.

  • Book cover with a black and white collage image alongside the title Oh You Robot Saints!

    Oh You Robot Saints!

    by Rebecca Frank Morgan

    Oh You Robot Saints! investigates the deeply human need to make and unmake, to pit nature against time. This collection is an irreverent jaunt through churches, factories, and dressing rooms.

  • Book cover for The Perseverance with a black and white moon on a cream background

    The Perseverance: Poems

    by Raymond Antrobus

    A stunning examination of a d/Deaf experience alongside meditations on loss, grief, education, and language, both spoken and signed. With a global scope and a deep intimacy, Antrobus draws on family and historical figures to create a chorus of voices.

  • Book cover of Popular Longing, teal with a white short-sleeved button down shirt

    Popular Longing

    by Natalie Shapero

    These poems are as witty as they are wise. Shapero dismantles the mundane violence of everyday life with aplomb. If you can't shake the absurdity of contemporary society, Popular Longing will feel like home.

  • Book cover for Transversal with a blue-tinted abstract image

    Transversal: Poems

    by Urayoán Noel

    Transversal is a playground of Spanish, English, and Spanglish. Urayoán Noel deftly switches language and form to examine the world after Hurricane María and during a global pandemic.

  • Book cover of What Noise Against the Cane, collage of a woman with blue and green leaves

    What Noise Against the Cane

    by Desiree C. Bailey

    The ocean speaks in this spellbinding epic that reframes the hero not as the plunderer but the one who is stolen.