World Poetry Day is here, and I want to use this time to let you know that poetry isn’t all Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson and Alexander Pope. Yes, people are still writing poetry and a lot of it is REALLY GOOD. I begrudgingly took my English poetry courses in college, but later found a love of more modern poets like Billy Collins and Louise Gluck and a love for verse novels like those by Ellen Hopkins. Here are twelve poetry collections/books of poetry perfect for this World Poetry Day

Wild Iris by Louise Gluck

The Complete Poetry by Maya Angelou

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

The Poetry of Pablo Neruda by Pablo Neruda

The Rain in Portugal by Billy Collins

Citizen by Claudia Rankine

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace

The Witch Doesn’t Burn in This One by Amanda Lovelace

Depression and Other Magic Tricks by Sabrina Benaim

Solo by Kwame Alexander