I’m constantly searching for new poetry discoveries from collections, Twitter, and Poets.org to inspire me in my own work. Even though I’m an English major, I haven’t read many pieces from poets I actually like in class (besides Toni Morrison and Langston Hughes), so I’m overcompensating for my lack of awe-inspiring pieces over the past three years. Poetry anthologies and mini collections are some of my favorite reads as I’m exposed to multiple poets at once. I recently picked up The Black Poets edited by Dudley Randall, Behind My Eyes by Li-Young Lee, and American Journal: Fifty Poems For Our Time selected by Tracy K. Smith. Each of these collections feature pieces analyzing different parts of society and its/their history. I chose them specifically because they mostly include poets of color- authors I haven’t studied in my time at Baylor. The Black Poets dives into pieces by black authors from the early slave days through the Harlem Renaissance and into the 1960’s. Authors like Imamu Ameer Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Claude McKay, and Yusef Iman are included. Behind My Eyes is a retelling of Li-Young Lee’s childhood memories in relation to societal events. As the son of Chinese immigrants, Lee shares his parents’ experiences in a new land. Tracy K. Smith is a goddess, so I have to buy any book she touches. American Journal: Fifty Poems For Our Time is a poetic assembly of diverse voices in America. Ross Gay, Danez Smith, and Eve Ewing, three of my favorite poets ever, are in the anthology as well as one of my most beloved poems: “We Lived Happily during the War” by Ilya Kaminsky.
