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To celebrate National Poetry Month, we’re sharing 103 links to just some of our favorite poetry-related writing published at Lit Hub—featuring criticism and conversations, the canonical and contemporary, and ruminations on craft.

The 10 best poetry collections of the decade •
The most anthologized poems of the last 25 years • “War plants paper flowers.” New poetry from Ukraine • In praise of poet voice • On the lost lyric poetry of Amelia Earhart • 10 Sharon Olds poems you can send to your ex • Ross Gay demands our attention • An oncology nurse finds solace in Mary Oliver • What is the project of trans poetics now? • Nikki Giovanni on why we need poetry • Joshua Bennett on performing at the White House • Joy Harjo on the diverse, groundbreaking world of Indigenous poetry • On the irreconcilable temptations of Anne Carson • 47 of your favorite writers on their favorite poems • Kaveh Akbar on finding poetry in childhood prayer • 10 life-affirming poems about death • Warsan Shire and Beyoncé, superheroes for our time • The real consolations of poetry • The poetry of the war on terror • 15 great cat poems not written by cats • My life as poet laureate (of a law firm)

The 32 most iconic poems in the English language • On the mundane letters of John Keats • T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” at 100 • The joyous, complicated brilliance of Walt Whitman • How much editing was done to Emily Dickinson’s poems after she died? • Living in the “in between spaces” of Elizabeth Bishop’s life-changing poetry • On the generosity of Gwendolyn Brooks, 100 years later • What we don’t know about Sylvia Plath • How Lord Byron invented the wild horse • The heteronymous identities of Fernando Pessoa • Thank you, Lawrence Ferlinghetti • Life advice from Adrienne Rich • On the radical afterlives of William Wordsworth • The ethos of Edna St. Vincent Millay • A 42-year correspondence with W.S. Merwin • Pablo Neruda’s life as a struggling poet in Sri Lanka • Hannah Arendt on the time she met W.H. Auden • When Wilde met Whitman • We need revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz more than ever • On Matsuo Bashō, Haiku’s greatest master

Carl Phillips on the value of silence for writers • Gerald Stern on the accidental beginnings of poems • Sumana Roy on the useless in the poetic • On the truths that lie between words • Hybrid poetry with Ocean Vuong • Ekphrastic poetry with Victoria Chang • Ada Limón on how to write a poetry collection • A serious look at poetic wordplay • What does it mean to find your poetic voice? • What sets prose poetry apart from the lyric? • Exploring the poetic plenitude of Black Life • Maggie Smith on how to revise poems without losing the initial spark • Lucille Clifton didn’t just write poems, she inhabited them • Poetry, like witchcraft and magick, is an act of transformation • The journey that changed Geoffrey Chaucer’s life • 10 essential terms for poets (and everyone else) • On the many ways and reasons to mix poetry and prose

On the radical potential of epistolary poetry • Bombay and the Beats: Bridging two cities through their poets • Edward Hirsch on locating the roots of the American poetry tradition • Transcendence and immanence in the work of Victoria Chang and Yusef Komunyakaa • Terry Tempest Williams on the loves (and appetites) of the great Jim Harrison • The soul-excavating work of Louise Glück • A poet’s case for wasting time • On Marianne Moore, defiant poet of complexity • Haiku, the evolution of a strict poetic game • Queer Black poets since the Harlem Renaissance • What we can learn from multiple translations of the same poem • Where are all the rural gay poets? • What poetry can teach us about power • The legendary Iranian poet who gives me hope • Maybe poets are, in fact, aliens • On Donika Kelly’s black girl poetry • Willie Perdomo on poetry as a decolonial practice • Writing toward a poetics of aging • On the Italian love—and need—for poetry • On the places and poetic forms of the Black Southern poet

Kathleen Rooney on life in a distant land • Robin Coste Lewis on giving the reader a poetic experience • José Olivarez on translation and transformation • Elisa New and Richard Blanco on the diversity of American poetry • How Rita Dove cultivates her “island of the mind” • Melissa Broder on the intellectual freedom of poetry • Mary Ruefle on how art exploded her world • Reginald Dwayne Betts on living between the poles of Yale-educated lawyer and prison-educated poet • Jericho Brown on church, desire, and learning how to change • Kevin Young on the intersection of poetry, museum curation, and hip hop • Tracy K. Smith: on reclaiming joy with poetic vocabulary • Natasha Trethewey on public grief in poetry and memoir • Natalie Diaz on writing poetry as a body • Ilya Kaminsky: “Fables allow you to break bread with the dead” • Talking to poets about their love of crossword puzzles • Danez Smith: “Being a poet means committing to vulnerability” • Hai-Dang Phan on poetic distance and reenacting the past • Tommy Pico on performance, life on the road, and learning to write • Eileen Myles on loving (and hating) poetry • Eve Ewing on education, institutions, and alternative models of poetry • Judith Butler on the poetry of Guantanamo • Chen Chen and Craig Santos Perez on honoring the weird fire • Sharon Olds, America’s brave poet of the body • Layli Long Soldier on the joys of creative liberation • Clint Smith on protest, art, and protest-art

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