April 2022 List of the Month: Favorite Recent Poetry: 1980-2022

We're now well into April, and that means it's time to think about another List of the Month!

What do you all think? What should we highlight this time?

Topics/themes already requested include:

1. Poetry (could be general, or more specific)
2. Non-English language works (this would need to be made far more specific)
3. Desert Island Books (not clear whether this means books you'd take to a desert island, or books about people on desert islands, i.e.: the Robinsonade)
4. The First Book(s) You Remember Reading
5. Best Books of a Certain Decade or Other Time Period
6. Best Youth or YA Fiction of a Certain Period
7. Your Country/State's Bestseller/Classic/Best/Most Recent Book
8. Best Sports Writing
9. Noirvember - Best Noir (for next November)
10. Best Books with Animal Protagonists
11. Best Graphic Novels
12. Best Books about Immigrants
13. Best Surreal Books
14. Books Made Into Great Movies
15. Australian Literature
16. Espionage Fiction / Spy-fi

We could, as always, go with something else entirely. Additional suggestions are always welcome, and if not adopted, can be added to the list above, for future consideration.

As April is Poetry Month, I think that would be a good choice.

Animal protagonists sounds like a hoot!

>2 lilithcat: Maybe "Modern Poetry" or "Post WWII Poetry" or even "21st Century Poetry". Otherwise the top will be occupied by the usual great poets (nothing against them but getting newer poets recommended sounds more in line with what LT is trying to do with these lists - and a lot more interesting list to explore).

Was looking at days recognized in April
Earth Day
Arbor Day
National Gardening Day
National Talk Like Shakespeare Day
I know we have done a nature writing list, but some of these could be interesting.

There's plenty to choose from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April#Month-long_observances

I like the idea of a poetry list. Maybe best anthologies?

Some day a gardening book list would be lovely! Although I have so many favourite gardening books that it would be hard to list just a few.

Three of you have mentioned the idea of a poetry list, in honor of Poetry Month, and I like this idea as well. I also like the idea of either a poetry anthology list, or a post-1950 list. Both of these would keep the list from being dominated by the same small number of authors. I'm inclining toward poetry anthologies. Any strong feelings against?

>9 AbigailAdams26: Make sure you define anthology (aka - poems by different authors). Otherwise we will be back to square one - people use the terms anthology and collection interchangeably very often :)

I'm for post-1950 rather than anthologies.

>11 paradoxosalpha:

Me, too.

Looking at my collection, I have a lot fewer anthologies than I thought I did. (Maybe that means I should read one this month!) It was actually the more appealing idea to me, but I could probably only cast 2, maybe 3 votes if I squint.

I would say that "post-1950" is 72 years, and if we're going by time frame, I'd prefer a narrower one. "21st century" sounds better to me (plus it increases the odds of supporting living poets).

Poetry anthologies will easily slide back into "Best poems of the 20th century" and "Best Irish Poets" and the similar... or a list of the various "Best of the year" compilations out there... Not that this cannot happen with the "21st Century Poetry" (unless we go for "21st Century Poetry Collections" (defining collection to mean 1 author)). Although even if we allow anthologies on a small time period, at least it will be new poetry and not Burns and Keats :)

Just thinking aloud.

The thing about best poetry of whatever period is, it might end up being dominated by people's favorite poets' collected works, so we'd have tons of votes for Collected Robert Frost and all the chapbooks would be hidden on the back pages. Good anthologies are hard to find and can be really, really good. If we explained terms, I'd like to see that list. I don't know. Now that I've typed it all out, either sounds good. I'd like to read those back pages.

>15 susanbooks: Robert Frost is not a 21st century poet though... which is why I made the point above to go for a period and not just best/favorite. :)

OK, it sounds like we are all basically on the same page, when it comes to wanting to see less well-known poets and titles. I'm not sure 21st-century poetry is wide enough, as that gives us only 22 years. But I also don't read a great deal of poetry, contemporary or classic, so maybe that is what is wanted...

If 1950-2022 is too broad, what about 1980-2022? 42 years, two decades before and two decades after the turn of the century?

Choice 1: 21st-Century Poetry
Choice 2: 1980-2022

Which do you prefer?

1980-2022 is 43 years... so if you are going for 42, it should be 1981-2022 (nitpicking because someone will if you post it like that...) :)

Either way works for me - my 5 entries will be from the last decade or so anyway :)

I prefer "1980-2022", but "Collections by the best poets alive" would also achieve some of the things that have been mentioned.

>18 AnnieMod: Thanks! That was silly of me. And yes, I'm sure someone would pick up on it. :)

>19 anglemark: I think we'll go with "Favorite Poetry: 1980-2022."

OK, the list has been created! Please add your favorite recent works of poetry, published from the years 1980-2022:

https://www.librarything.com/list/43565/all/Favorite-Recent-Poetry-1980-2022

The list is stopping me at adding 4. Worlds will collide if I can't add the fifth!

>22 susanbooks: Did you downvote something? There is a long-standing bug which count these as entries.

>23 AnnieMod: That's it. Thanks!

>24 susanbooks: This would be an appropriate time to use the new "flag" feature instead of a downvote, right? As described at https://www.librarything.com/topic/339383#7763060

(Or maybe flag _and_ downvote, though since all the votes for the miscategorized titles have come off, it seems not to matter this time.)

Hey all, I thought I would pop back in here and mention that this month's ER batch includes some new offerings from BOA Editions, a non-profit press specializing in poetry. In fact, two of the four new poetry collections on offer are from debut authors.

https://www.librarything.com/ner/publisher/2723/BOA-Editions-Ltd

Ahh...Even some of what I might think of as recent poetry like Robert Frost is too early. sigh.