April Poetry Roundup (and Giveaway!): 30 Favorite Poems

In honor of this 30th day of National Poetry Month, we’ve listed 30 of our favorite poems of all time. This is by no means an exhaustive list of the best poems out there, but it is a list of poems that have moved us, stuck with us, and kept us going.

Do you have a favorite poem that isn’t listed? Tell us about it and link to it in the comments for a chance to win a copy of Julia Alvarez’s poetry collection The Woman I Kept to Myself. Please also check out Alvarez’s beautiful memoir A Wedding in Haiti, which just came out last week.

Lauren’s Picks:

“Musée des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden

“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson

“Needs” by Stuart Dischell

“fire” by Nick Flynn

“Chosen by the Lion” by Linda Gregg

“A Story About the Body” by Robert Hass

“Piss Christ” by Andrew Hudgins

“Nude Interrogation” by Yusef Komunyakaa

“My Story in a Late Style of Fire” by Larry Levis

“Archaic Torso of Apollo” by Rainer Maria Rilke

“Old Joke” by Alan Shapiro

“Duende” by Tracy K. Smith

“Door in the Mountain” by Jean Valentine

“Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” by James Wright

“Adam’s Curse” by W. B. Yeats

Megan’s Picks:

“The Distances” by Jim Carroll

“love is more thicker than forget” by e. e. cummings

“All This and More” by Mary Karr

“A Fable” by Robert Kelly

“Happiness” by Jane Kenyon

“Food of Love” by Carolyn Kizer

“Love Song”by Carol Muske-Dukes

“One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII” by Pablo Neruda

“Steps” by Frank O’Hara

“Know-Nothing” by Sharon Olds

“Beggar’s Song” by Gregory Orr

“Love Song” by Dorothy Parker

“Thin” by Kay Ryan

“All My Pretty Ones” by Anne Sexton

“Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand

Tags: A Wedding in Haiti, Alan Shapiro, Andrew Hudgins, Anne Sexton, Carol Muske-Dukes, Carolyn Kizer, Dorothy Parker, e. e. cummings, Emily Dickenson, Frank O'Hara, Gregory Orr, James Wright, Jane Kenyon, Jean Valentine, Jim Carroll, Julia Alvarez, Kay Ryan, Larry Levis, Linda Gregg, Mark Strand, Mary Karr, National Poetry Month, Nick Flynn, Pablo Neruda, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Hass, Robert Kelly, Sharon Olds, Stuart Dischell, The Woman I k, Tracy K Smith, W. B. yeats, W. H. Auden, Yusef Komunyakaa