Ten American Contemporary Poetry Books For Which I Am Grateful

There are poetry books that teach me. Others that comfort me. Some books which bring me elsewhere.

And then there are the poetry books for which I am profoundly grateful.  Those are the books I read over and over because I simply love them .

Every time I finish one of these book, I am thankful for the poets who gave me these books. It has been one of the purest pleasures of my life that I have, on occasion, been able to say thank you to a few of these poets in person.

Here's a short list of a few of these books.

Maggie Anderson, Windfall
Lucille Clifton, Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir
Martha Collins, Blue Front
Carolyn Forche, The Country Between Us
Jack Gilbert, The Great Fires
Patricia Hampl, Woman Before the Aquarium
Dorianne Laux, What We Carry
Denise Levertov, The Jacob's Ladder
Frannie Lindsay, Mayweed
Bruce Weigl, What Saves Us