How to Read More Poetry (And Reclaim Your Fire)
Let’s cut the crap: poetry was never supposed to be this elite, gatekept thing guarded by dudes in tweed blazers quoting dead white guys. Somewhere along the line, the raw, radical heart of poetry got stuffed in a box labeled “academic” and buried under footnotes.
We’re digging it up.
Poetry is rage and softness, resistance and reverence. It’s how we name what patriarchy tells us to silence. And if you’ve ever felt like poetry “wasn’t for you”? That’s because the wrong people were talking about it.
Let’s change that. Here’s how to actually read more poetry — and make it a rebellion.
1. Burn the Canon (Metaphorically… or Not)
You don’t have to start with Shakespeare. You don’t have to pretend you vibe with Frost. You don’t owe the “classics” your energy unless they speak to you.
Instead, try:
Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire (raw and luminous)
Mother Viper, by Savannah Cooper (yep, ours — and it's feminist fire incarnate)
The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (essential. period.)
The Carrying by Ada Limón (gentle power)
Crush by Richard Siken (because queer longing = feral art)
2. Read It Loud. Let It Take Up Space.
Poetry is sound. Vibration. A throat cleared and a truth shouted. Don’t read it quietly and apologetically like it’s someone else’s secret. Read it out loud. Read it like it’s yours. Because it is.
3. Stop Trying to Be “Smart” About It
Poetry isn’t a quiz. You don’t get extra credit for “getting it.” You get power from feeling it. Read it like a scream, a prayer, a breakup text, a birth. Let it hit you. Let it be messy.
4. Make Poetry Your Protest Ritual
Wake up. Read a poem. Make your coffee. Take on the world. Before you clock into late-stage capitalism, remind yourself what it feels like to be fully alive. A poem a day keeps the soul-numbing bullshit away.
5. Follow Poets Who Don’t Apologize
Find the loud, the strange, the soft, the unapologetically femme. Fill your feed with people who turn language into liberation.
Some faves:
@nayirawahid (small words, big feelings)
@sylviarivka
@pagesandbones
@unsolicitedpress (we publish fierce voices only, thanks)
6. Find the Voices You Were Never Taught
Most of us grew up with a poetry curriculum that was 90% white dudes and war metaphors. Time to unlearn and re-learn.
Start here:
A Nail the Evening Hangs On by Monica Sok
Bodymap by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Look by Solmaz Sharif
The Tradition by Jericho Brown
Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
These poets aren’t just writing poems. They’re dismantling systems and building new ones in their place.
7. Want to Feel Alive? Go to a Reading.
Live poetry is holy chaos. Find an open mic. Bring your poems. Or don’t. Just show up and witness. There’s something electric about hearing someone spit their truth into a microphone — no filter, no fear. That’s real.
Final Word?
Poetry isn’t some delicate art for dusty libraries. It’s a knife. A balm. A fist in the air. It’s the sound of women and queer folks and marginalized voices saying: We are still here. We are still speaking.
Read poetry. Feel everything. Then write your own.
We need your voice.
