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The Poetry Shelf: Collections to Read, Savour, and Reflect on This November

From the complexities of womanhood and identity to grief, belonging, and the beauty of being human, this month's poetry picks explore the many ways verse makes sense of the world around us.
The Poetry Shelf: Collections to Read, Savour, and Reflect on This November
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This November, things get a little retrospective with our poetry picks. Now before you moan and groan about how you thought you left iambic pentametre back in English class in high school, let us tell you there are many ways to enjoy poetry. A thorough annotation is not always needed!

Rupi Kaur and her ilk popularised a form of poetry now known as “Instagram poetry” but it did the job. It brought more people to enjoy verse. Here are some of our picks:

APOORVA'S SHELF

Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, Tishani Doshi
Live or Die, Anne Sexton

Live or Die, Anne Sexton

“What is reality / to this synthetic doll / who should smile, who should shift gears, / should spring the doors open in a wholesome disorder, / and have no evidence of ruin or fears?” Anne Sexton’s 1966 collection of poetry which won her the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry examines the writer’s troubled relationships and treatment for mental illness.

Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, Tishani Doshi

“Find a courtyard filled with sun / and let your gold relentlessly / unfold upon the paisley sleeves / of your bereaved imaginings.” In the 2017 poetry collection, Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, Tishani Doshi tackles several subjects including transformation, belonging, the commodification of women’s bodies, and the titular poem dedicated to her friend Monika.

GRACE'S PICKS

Girling, Eve Esfandiari-Denney
Alanis Morissette, Jake Wild Hall

Alanis Morissette, Jake Wild Hall

“You find me difficult to love / maybe too much mirror / when I remember you / I find it difficult to love / maybe too many lessons.” Jake Wild Hall delves into the raw, often contradictory nature of grief, kinship, fatherhood, and masculinity in this collection. His poems move with an almost lyrical tenderness, finding moments of absurdity amid candour, and vulnerability where one might least expect it.

Girling, Eve Esfandiari-Denney

“There is a Farsi way of making livers romantic. The phrase ‘I will eat your liver’ being idiomatic of yearning. Yearning being idiomatic of the way nature has no outline, but imagination does.” In her debut collection, Eve Esfandiari-Denney explores the boundaries between life and death, memories, and everyday oddities into a tender meditation on mortality and what it means to be human.