EDITORS’ RECOMMENDATIONS

BECK’S PICK - HAVING A COKE WITH YOU - FRANK O’HARA

A love poem that goes from Coke to Michelangelo. It is pure, artistic, and humorous. O’Hara captures the gushing feeling of love in run-on sentences and art history references.

LAUREN’S PICK - IN THE DESERT - STEPHEN CRANE

This poem is short but a true favourite of mine. I love the imagery, I love that so much is conveyed in so little, and I love that you can like a bitter heart.

HABIBAH’S PICK - BEFORE THE NEXT BOMB DROPS: RISING UP FROM BROOKLYN TO PALESTINE - REMI KANAZI

This book was gifted to me after my grandmother lost her body to covid. I was sad, angry and overwhelmed with worldly responsibilities and my friends gave me this book. I cried when I got it, because number one, I missed my grandmother. Number two, because this book was on my reading list and number three because I experienced an act of true love. This book is a collection of poems about everything that ignites fire within me. It’s a collection on Palestine, police brutality, incarceration, US militarism and a whole heap of capitalist terribleness. The poems aren’t political analysis or theory before I scare anyone off. It’s words about the humanity behind all of these. Like all good poems, this collection brings shame and inspiration all in one go.

JENNY’S PICK - BOOK OF LONGING - LEONARD COHEN

Since I am obsessed with Leonard Cohen’s songwriting and lyricism, I thought I might buy his poetry book too - and what a great decision that was! Cohen does not decorate or fluff about, his words are intimately vulgar. Like the title suggests, a huge theme throughout the book is longing, and Cohen expresses it so painfully and so beautifully. There’s also a lot about his time as a monk - very interesting. He pines, reminisces, yearns - pretty much right up my alley. I hope you will enjoy it too.

GRACE’S PICK - ITHAKA - CONSTANTINE PETER CAVAFY

I was introduced to this poem in Year 11 of high school and since then, it has always held a special place in my heart. It isn’t particularly complex or long, but beautiful nonetheless. The poem is about understanding what is important in life. It pulls on the characters and places of Greek mythology, including the concept of ‘Ithaka’ as a kind of paradise. It tells us that we should hope our ‘road is a long one’, simply for the experience of the road. A favourite line of mine from this piece is ‘And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.’ I can guarantee you I have not done this piece justice, so please go and read it.

CHANEL’S PICK - POWER - AUDRE LORDE

Power speaks of the rife systematic, violent and prevalent racism of the western world. With such descriptive and dark imagery, this poem really sheds light on the horrors people of colour have to endure.

So, if you’re white and you’re reading this- we need to do better to actively work against this system that oppresses people of colour.