Best Poetry Collections to Read During Summertime
It’s finally almost summer!
Now, I’m someone who thinks there’s poetry for all the different seasons, and all the sub-seasons you might choose to acknowledge or not, too. It’s now May though, Taurus season, more specifically, and when Gemini season starts, so does the summertime, and that’s just so, so very glaringly soon. I think myself and all my fellow poetry lovers should celebrate this wonderful change of season the only way we know how—by reading copious amounts of poetry, of course.
I love the summer so much—the good weather, the sun, the romantic sage green-ness of it all—and I think the perfect way to honor all of that is to pick up some poetry collections and read them cover to cover in one sitting. I personally like to do this while sitting in the grass on my favorite picnic blanket, either alone or with a best friend or two, a bowl of berries for snacking, an iced lavender oat milk latte for sipping, an insulated water bottle for staying hydrated, and my dogs at my feet, but anyway you choose to read poetry is completely valid of course. We need people to read poetry, always, so however you choose to do that is great and appreciated by all poets and fellow poetry lovers alike. So, here are some poetry collections that I think make summer’s welcome a bit warmer:
Dream Work by Mary Oliver
This is by far my favorite collection of Mary Oliver’s that I’ve read so far. Oliver’s poetry, that is tender, dreamy, and filled to the brim with nature, divinity, and her darling, lovely perspective on the world, is just absolutely perfect for the summertime. Reading Dream Work is like a breath of fresh air, with lines like “Mostly, I want to be kind.” (Dogfish), “…if the doors of my heart/ever close, I am as good as dead. (Landscape), and this one from Coming Home “…what we see is the world/that cannot cherish us/but which we cherish…” you’ll be ready to welcome summer with open arms and a new appreciation for all the nature blooming around you.
Crush by Richard Siken
Richard Siken is just one of those poets that gets it, if you know what I mean (and if you somehow don’t, you’ll get what I mean after reading the treasure that is Crush). His poetry is breathtaking, and very gut wrenching, but I still think it’s got the perfect hint of summer and I reread it every time the season comes back around time and time again.
Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón
Nothing makes me want to sit in a patch of grass in the sun with my best friends like Ada Limón’s poetry. Lines like “I think/of that feeling when you’re really full, or life is full/and you can’t think of anything else that could fit in it,/but then even more sky comes and more days/and there is so much to remember and swallow.” (Someplace Like Montana), “I never knew survival/was like that. If you live,/you look back and beg/for it again, the hazardous/bliss before you know/what you would miss.” (Before), and finally, from Outside Oklahoma, We See Boston “How/masterful and mad is hope.” help me make sure I know how wonderful it is just to be here, on a summer day, alive and reading poetry and hoping. It’s such a beautiful thing when poetry can make you so flipping happy to be alive.
All Day I Dream about Sirens by Domenica Martinello
With stories of mermaids, certain coffee chain logos, and wetness, this poetry collection is best served with seafood, an iced drink from Starbucks, and sea salt air. This is the perfect collection of poetry for when you’re at the beach, or have an aching to go to one, at least, or if you think you should’ve been a mermaid in this life (and haven’t we’ve all been there at least once?)
Pamper Me to Hell & Back by Hera Lindsay Bird
At just 28 pages, this is the perfect little book to read cover to cover on a sunny summer day. This book may be small, but it sure is mighty, with lines like “it’s like ………. life is not a punishment/and sometimes good things happen for no reason” (I am so in love with you I want to lie down in the middle of a major public intersection and cry) and “…nothing must hurt you, not even me” (I knew I loved you when you showed me your Minecraft world) it makes you want to wholly believe in love, poetry, and the power of long titles, and nothing’s more summery than all of that.
Relearning the Alphabet by Denise Levertov
A lot like Mary Oliver’s Dream Work, this collection focuses on nature, love, and divinity. It’s beautiful, it’s classical, and it hasn’t been talked about nearly as much as I think it should be. Levertov’s lines, especially the ones about summer (“and if the summer spent/itself before I took it/into my life–?” in Not Yet and “A dark time we live in. One would think/there would be no summer.” in July 1968) are so profound and peculiar in a way that make us question our deserving of this beautiful season and if we’re appreciating it enough, appreciating it like it deserves, which I think is not only perfect for the season, but also a great thing for us writers, readers, and humans who live on this big, beautiful planet to question in general.
Happy almost summer(!) and happy sitting-in-the-sun-poetry-reading season to all poetry lovers and poetry writers and summer appreciators alike. May it be a good season for poetry and for us all. *Cheers*
