{"id":162658341,"date":"2026-04-22T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162658341"},"modified":"2026-04-23T12:32:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T17:32:56","slug":"11-poems-if-you-wanna-read-some-poems-with-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=162658341","title":{"rendered":"11 Poems If You Wanna Read Some Poems (With Links)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
“A glass of papaya juice\u00a0\/ and back to work. My heart is in my\u00a0\/ pocket, it is Poems by Pierre Reverdy.” – Frank O’Hara, “A Step Away From Them”<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

I can’t start another blog with “it’s National Poetry Month,” but dudes, I am having a hard time coming up with a good opener. I’m having a little bit of a hard time writing in general lately. Tired? Maybe. Not burned out, though afraid of it. There has<\/em> been some good poetry happening, and maybe I should accept that editing\/writing poetry is a longer, more deliberate process than fiction. Spring is usually a time of depression and downtroddenness, and there have been some personal things happening that make “crafting sentences” a more Herculean task than usual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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see? don’t they look like writing is hard? (credit: Wikimedia Commons, Anonymous, 17th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is a long prologue to say that I wanted<\/em> to close read some poems, like I did with Taylor Byas<\/a>, Diannely Antigua<\/a>, and Kinzie Allen<\/a> poems last year. I think this year’s April columns have been solid\u2014a recounting of Lit For Chicago<\/a>, a “found poem,”<\/a> and a roundup of poetic (auto)biographies<\/a>. Each time I thought about close reading a poem for the blog, though, I felt kinda overwhelmed and incapable. Idk, there’s always back episodes of The Line Break<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I thought it might be nice to recommend some poems. The Poetry Foundation, whatever its various issues, is largely a cool place and a glorious archive, so let’s head over there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I don’t feel like this picture does that magnificent building justice but it’s what we got (credit: Wikimedia Commons, Alanscottwalker<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“A Step Away From Them” by Frank O’Hara<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the poems that made me fall in love with poetry. Josh breezed into class early in my first poetry workshop, read this out loud, and I was absolutely ruined for the rest of my life. Poetry Foundation link. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[I met a dying man] by Diane Seuss<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can’t talk about Frank without bringing up a poem from frank:sonnets<\/em>. Boy oh boy do I need to re-read that book. Poetry Foundation link<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’ll Get Worse Before It Gets Worse” by Joshua Marie Wilkinson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there a bigger Frank O’Hara fan on the planet? I’m not sure. Josh remains the best at really wild lines (“And like language, these gestures, or a certain way of nodding \/ one\u2019s head, it all eases in with less than a breath.”) and really hilariously straightforward ones (“Where are you? \/\/ I’m alone on the road \/ with a dead phone.”) Poetry Foundation link.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Aubade with Burning City” by Ocean Vuong<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you need an entrypoint into poetry, Ocean Vuong seems to be a pretty popular first poet for people. That is not to say that his work is easy. The attention he gets is well-deserved, and it’s nice to see a truly great poet get the kind of success he has. Poetry Foundation link<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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bucolic setting with a poetry tent (credit: Wikimedia Commons, Alan Davis Drake<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Independence Day 2010” by Hoa Nguyen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been talking about her enough lately<\/a>, you should go read one of her poems. Poetry Foundation link<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Children Of The Poor” by Gwendolyn Brooks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of people I’ve been talking about a lot lately<\/a>, here’s the Gwen Brooks poem that suburbanites hate. Poetry Foundation link<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This Is How Our Bodies Are Made To Apologize” by Mayda del Valle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go read Chicago’s Poet Laureate, you will not regret it. Poetry Foundation link<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Flies Buzzing” by Mark Turcotte<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go read Illinois’ Poet Laureate, you will not regret it. Poetry Foundation link<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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hey poets, I found a cool moon (credit: Wikimedia Commons, Jebulon<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“Clinical Thermometer Set with Moonstone” by Alice Notley<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never bad idea to read Alice Notley and consider the poetics of family. Poetry Foundation link<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Crossing” by Jericho Brown<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve only read one book by Jericho Brown<\/a>, and I feel like I need to remedy that. He’s one of those “on a different plane” poets, very spiritual. “Long as the sea. I\u2019m more than a conqueror, bigger \/ Than bravery. I don\u2019t march. I\u2019m the one who leaps.” is such a way to end a poem. “Thank God \/ I’m different” is a little enjambment to put in your pocket, carry around like chapstick. Poetry Foundation link<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“75 [“Wake, butterfly”] by Bash\u014d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You gotta read Bash\u014d. Haikus turned me off until I read Bash\u014d. Read some Bash\u014d. Poetry Foundation link<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy some poems! Break the algorithms! Read a book! Go outside!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sorry you got an email, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“A glass of papaya juice\u00a0\/ and back to work. My heart is in my\u00a0\/ pocket, it is Poems by Pierre Reverdy.” – Frank O’Hara, “A Step Away From Them” I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162658343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169,10],"tags":[313,310,309,124,307,314,219,312,97,311],"class_list":["post-162658341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shipwrecked-sailor-blog","category-wednesday-column","tag-alice-notley","tag-diane-seuss","tag-frank-ohara","tag-gwendolyn-brooks","tag-hoa-nguyen","tag-jericho-brown","tag-joshua-marie-wilkinson","tag-mark-turcotte","tag-mayda-del-valle","tag-ocean-vuong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162658341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162658341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162658341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162658348,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162658341\/revisions\/162658348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/162658343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162658341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162658341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162658341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}