The Dream of a Common Language – Adrienne Rich
Rich’s commentary through poems on the lack of acceptance of loving relationships is gripping, beautiful, and sad. These are the kind of poems I think about long after I have read them.
Don’t Call Us Dead – Danez Smith
The speaker walks the reader through emotional lives and the desire to be loved. The gravity in this work for me is the physical manifestation of these emotional lives.
The Black Unicorn – Audre Lorde
In this collection, Lorde explores intersectional identity and the leaps of strength it takes to preserve that identity.
She Had Some Horses – Joy Harjo
I love Harjo’s use of repetition and how she masterfully uses this technique to discuss women’s despair.
The Second O of Sorrow – Sean Thomas Dougherty
One of the early poems in this collection about words and wounds is always on my mind–it’s a short piece with a hell of a punch.
Christine Taylor identifies as multiracial and is an English teacher and librarian residing in her hometown Plainfield, New Jersey. She is the EIC of Kissing Dynamite: A Journal of Poetry and the author of The Queen City (Broken Sleep Books, 2019) and Petal (Bone & Ink Press, 2020). Christine has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and her work appears in Glass, Turtle Island Responds, Rogue Agent, Haibun Today, and The Rumpus among others. Right now, she’s probably covered in cat hair and drinking a martini. Visit her at http://www.christinetayloronline.com. christinetayloronline@gmail.com