48 Top-Rated Poetry Collections from the Past Five Years

Those who have picked up the habit can tell you: Poetry is a lot more fun than you might expect.
 
This is especially true if you have a love for language. By tinkering with the very architecture of how we communicate, poets can pull off maneuvers that will take your breath away. Here’s a classic piece of advice, given to newcomers for hundreds of years: Try reading poems aloud. Speaking the language can unlock meaning and mood in a way that’s genuinely startling. It’s like sorcery.
 
We’ve gathered here 48 relatively recent poetry collections—published since 2019—that have proved particularly popular with Goodreads’ regulars. Each of the books has earned an average star rating of 3.5 or above (sometimes very above). You’ll find many of the best-known poets in the business, like Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, and Ocean Vuong. Also watch for some familiar new names like Rio Cortez and America’s first National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman.
 
If nothing else, poetry collections are also a great place to find superior book cover design, in which the words and images together produce their own remarkable effects. Consider this one. Or this one. Or especially this one. Click on the book cover images for more information about each title, and add any good leads to your Want to Read shelf.

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