The Best Poetry Books of 2021 (A Year-End List Aggregation)
“What are the best Poetry books released in 2021?” We looked at 331 of the top Poetry books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 44 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Poetry” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 275+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
Our other Best Of 2021 Articles:
- The Best Art, Photography, And Coffee Table Books
- The Best AudioBooks
- The Best Biography And Memoir Books
- The Best Graphic Novels And Comics
- The Best Cookbooks
- The Best Fiction Books
- The Best Books (All Catergories)
- The Best History Books
- The Best Kids, Children, and Youth Books
- The Best Mystery, Horror, and Thriller Books
- The Best Nonfiction Books
- The Best Poetry Books
- The Best Science And Nature Books
- The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
- The Best Young Adult Books
Previous Years: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
Happy Scrolling!
Top 44 Best Poetry Books From 2021
44.) A Blood Condition written by Kayo Chingonyi
Lists It Appears On:
- The Guardian
- Waterstones
…
43.) A God at the Door written by Tishani Doshi
Lists It Appears On:
- The Guardian
- Waterstones
“We are homesick everywhere,” writes Tishani Doshi, “even when we’re home.” With aching empathy, righteous anger, and rebellious humor, A God at the D…
42.) All The Names Given written by Raymond Antrobus
Lists It Appears On:
- The Guardian
- Waterstones
On the heels of his much-lauded debut collection, Raymond Antrobus continues his essential investigation into language, miscommunication, place, and m…
41.) At Sea written by Aicha Martine Thiam
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
null…
40.) Bloodwarm written by Taylor Byas
Lists It Appears On:
- Raegen Pietrucha
- The Sundress Blog
…
39.) Borderline Fortune written by Teresa Miller
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
A collection that explores inherited trauma on an individual and communal level, from a National Poetry Series-winning poet who “refus[es] the mind’s …
38.) Cheryl’s Destinies written by Stephen Sexton
Lists It Appears On:
- Financial Times
- Waterstones
…
37.) Cleave written by Tiana Nobile
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- The Sundress Blog
In her debut collection, Tiana Nobile grapples with the history of transnational adoption, both her own from South Korea and the broader, collective e…
36.) Comic Timing written by Holly Pester
Lists It Appears On:
- The Guardian
- Waterstones
…
35.) Cutlish written by Rajiv Mohabir
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
In Cutlish, a title referencing the rural recasting of the cutlass or machete, Rajiv Mohabir creates a form migrated from Caribbean chutney music in o…
34.) Dad Jokes from Late in the Patriarchy written by Amorak Huey
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
null…
33.) Dear Diaspora written by Susan Nguyen
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
Dear Diaspora is an unapologetic reckoning with history, memory, and grief. Parting the weeds on a small American town, this collection sheds light on…
32.) Dialogues With Rising Tides written by Kelli Russell Agodon
Lists It Appears On:
- Raegen Pietrucha
- The Sundress Blog
In Kelli Russell Agodon’s fourth collection, each poem facilitates a humane and honest conversation with the forces that threaten to take us under. Th…
31.) Doppelgangbanger written by Cortney Lamar Charleston
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- NY Public Library
In his anticipated second poetry collection, Doppelgangbanger, Cortney Lamar Charleston examines the performance of Black masculinity in the U.S., and…
30.) Dor written by Alina Stefanescu
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
…
29.) Embouchure written by Emilia Philips
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
★This poignant and intimate account of discovery hums with pitch-perfect humor and triumphs that hit hard. Publishers Weekly, starred reviewAn embouch…
28.) Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat written by Khalisa Rae
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
What happens when a Midwestern girl migrates to a haunted Southern town, whose river is a graveyard, whose streets bear the names of Southern slave ow…
27.) I Am Not Trying to Hide My Hungers from the World written by Kendra DeColo
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
The Southern Review of Books’s Best Southern Books of April 2021 Punk-rock feminist poems exploring motherhood, pop culture, and resistance with a spi…
26.) I Hope This Finds You Well written by Kate Baer
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- Raegen Pietrucha
The author of the #1 What Kind of Woman returns with a collection of erasure poems created from notes she received from followers, supporters and det…
25.) Imagine Us, The Swarm written by Muriel Leung
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- The Sundress Blog
Following the death of the poet’s father, Imagine Us, The Swarm contemplates vengeance, eschews forgiveness, and cultivates a desire for healing beyon…
24.) Lineage of Rain written by Janel Pineda
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
In this spellbinding debut, Los Angeles-born poet Janel Pineda sings of communal love and the diaspora and dreams for a liberated future. Lineage of R…
23.) Little God written by Avni Vyas
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- The Sundress Blog
“Part trickster, part soulmate, part self-reflection, there is nothing small about Avni Vyas’s little god.” -Anne Barngrover, author of Brazen Creatur…
22.) Mutiny written by Philip B. Williams
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- Entropy
From the critically acclaimed author of Thief in the Interior who writes with a lucid, unmitigated humanity (Boston Review), a startling new collectio…
21.) Oh You Robot Saints! written by Rebecca Morgan Frank
Lists It Appears On:
- NY Public Library
- The Sundress Blog
Part bestiary, part litany, part elegy, Rebecca Morgan Frank’s Oh You Robot Saints! is populated by a strange menagerie of early automata and robots, …
20.) Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs written by Bo Schwabacher
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Bo Schwabacher’s OMMA, SEA OF JOY AND OTHER ASTROLOGICAL SIGNS is a book of equal parts defiance and grief. Th…
19.) Philomath written by Devon Walker-Figueroa
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
Selected by Sally Keith as a winner of the 2020 National Poetry Series, this debut collection is a ruminative catalogue of overgrowth and the places t…
18.) Sho written by Douglas Kearney
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- Entropy
2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR POETRY Eschewing series and performative typography, Douglas Kearney’s Sho aims to hit crooked licks with straig…
17.) Stones: Poems written by
Lists It Appears On:
- Financial Times
- Library Journal
A book of loss, looking back, and what binds us to life, by a towering poetic talent, called one of the poetry stars of his generation (Los Angeles Ti…
16.) The Essential June Jordan written by June Jordan
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Publishers Weekly
Honored as a Best Book of 2021 by Publishers Weekly This volume of verse displays the undeniable legacy June Jordan left on both our literature and cu…
15.) The Past written by Wendy Xu
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- Entropy
Elegiac and searching, poems written in the long shadow of immigration The poems in Wendy Xu’s third collection, The Past, fantasize uneasily about be…
14.) The Perseverance written by Raymond Antrobus
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- NY Public Library
In the wake of his father’s death, the speaker in Raymond Antrobus’ The Perseverance travels to Barcelona. In Gaudi’s Cathedral, he meditates on the i…
13.) The Wild Fox of Yemen written by
Lists It Appears On:
- Financial Times
- Library Journal
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry Winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, selected by Harryette Mullen By t…
12.) Waterbaby written by Nikki Wallschlaeger
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- The Sundress Blog
In her astounding third collection, Nikki Wallschlaeger turns to water–the natural element of grief–to trace history’s interconnected movements thro…
11.) What Noise Against the Cane written by Desiree C. Bailey
Lists It Appears On:
- NY Public Library
- The Sundress Blog
Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Poetry, this Yale Series of Younger Poets volume is a lyrical and polyvocal exploration of what it means…
10.) Where Hope Comes From written by Nikita Gill
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- Waterstones
**The Sunday Times Bestseller** Instagram superstar and poet Nikita Gill returns to her roots with her most personal collection yet, including more th…
9.) Worldly Things written by Michael Kleber-Diggs
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Raegen Pietrucha
A New York Times Book Review New & Noteworthy Poetry Selection A Library Journal Poetry Title to Watch 2021 A Chicago Review of Books Poetry Collectio…
8.) You Better Be Lightning written by Andrea Gibson
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- Raegen Pietrucha
You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson is a queer, political, and feminist collection guided by self-reflection. The poems range from close examinat…
7.) A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure written by Hoa Nguyen
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Library Journal
- Publishers Weekly
2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR POETRY A collection inspired by Hoa’s mother, a stunt motorcyclist in an all-woman Vietnamese circus troupe, is …
6.) Pilgrim Bell written by Kaveh Akbar
Lists It Appears On:
- Entropy
- Library Journal
- Raegen Pietrucha
Kaveh Akbar’s exquisite, highly anticipated follow-up to Calling a Wolf a Wolf With formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbar’s second col…
5.) Playlist for the Apocalypse written by Rita Dove
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- NY Times
- Publishers Weekly
In her first volume of new poems in twelve years, Rita Dove investigates the vacillating moral compass guiding America’s, and the world’s, experiments…
4.) Popular Longing written by Natalie Shapero
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- Entropy
- NY Public Library
The poems of Natalie Shapero’s third collection, Popular Longing, highlight the ever-increasing absurdity of our contemporary life. With her sharp, sa…
3.) The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us From the Void written by Jackie Wang
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- Entropy
- Publishers Weekly
2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR POETRYJackie Wang’s magnetic and spellbinding debut collection of poetry that attempts to speak in the language …
2.) Winter Recipes From the Collective: Poems written by Louise Glück
Lists It Appears On:
- Financial Times
- Library Journal
- NY Times
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE A haunting new book by a poet whose voice speaks of all our lifetimes Louise Glück’s thirteenth book is among …
1.) frank: sonnets written by Diane Seuss
Lists It Appears On:
- Boston Globe
- Entropy
- NY Public Library
- Publishers Weekly
- Raegen Pietrucha
- The Sundress Blog
A resplendent life in sonnets from the author of Four-Legged Girl, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize “The sonnet, like poverty, teaches you what you c…
The 275+ Additional Best Poetry Books Released In 2021
45) (outside the 2021 time frame) – List: Raegen Pietrucha
46) 100 Poets – John Carey List: Waterstones
47) 13th Balloon – Mark Bibbins List: Entropy
48) A Net to Catch My Body in its Weaving – List: The Sundress Blog
49) A Poet for Every Day of the Year – Allie Esiri List: Waterstones
50) A Symmetry – Ari Banias List: Entropy
51) A Treatise on Stars – Mei-mei Berssenbrugge List: Entropy
52) A Vertical Art: Oxford Lectures – List: The Guardian
53) A Window of Passing Light – Kerry Darbishire List: Raegen Pietrucha
54) A Year in the New Life – Jack Underwood List: Waterstones
55) about:blank – Tracy Fuad List: Entropy
56) Against Silence – Frank Bidart List: Boston Globe
57) Alien Year – Louise Akers List: Raegen Pietrucha
58) All This Time – List: Boston Globe
59) American Cavewall Sonnets – C.T. Salazar List: Raegen Pietrucha
60) American Divine – Aaron Poochigian List: Raegen Pietrucha
61) American Melancholy: Poems – List: Goodreads
62) Anodyne – Khadijah Queen List: Entropy
63) Aquí era el paraíso/Here Was Paradise: – List: SLJ
64) Atom City – Sara Sams List: Entropy
65) Back to Grace – Earthschool Harmony – 2018 List: Raegen Pietrucha
66) be/trouble – Bridgette Bianca List: Entropy
67) Beowulf – List: The Guardian
68) Besiege Me – Nicholas Wong List: Entropy
69) Big Girl With Buck Teeth – Shyla Jones List: Raegen Pietrucha
70) Bionic Communality – Brenda Iijima List: Entropy
71) bird of winter – Alice Hiller List: Waterstones
72) Birthright – George Abraham List: Entropy
73) Black Girl, Call Home – List: Goodreads
74) Blerd – Chris L. Butler List: Raegen Pietrucha
75) Blood Feather – Karla Kelsey List: Entropy
76) Blood on the Fog – Tongo Eisen-Martin List: Entropy
77) Boat People – List: The Sundress Blog
78) Bone House – List: The Sundress Blog
79) Bonfire Opera – Danusha Laméris List: Entropy
80) Book of the Other: Small in Comparison – Truong Tran List: Entropy
81) Cajoncito – Elizabeth M. Castillo List: Raegen Pietrucha
82) Call Me Athena: Girl From Detroit – Colby Cedar Smith List: Goodreads
83) Call Us What We Carry – Amanda Gorman List: Waterstones
84) Calling a Wolf a Wolf – Kaveh Akbar List: Raegen Pietrucha
85) Capital Hates Everyone Translated by Robert Hurley – Maurizio Lazzarato List: Blackout
86) Catalogue d’oiseaux – Aaron Tucker List: Entropy
87) Catrachos – Roy G. Guzman List: Entropy
88) Ceive – List: Boston Globe
89) Change Sings – Amanda Gorman List: Waterstones
90) Chlorine Sky – Mahogany L. Browne List: Goodreads
91) Chokecherry – Lyd Havens List: Entropy
92) Clarity & Connection – List: Goodreads
93) Collected Poems – Sonia Sanchez List: Entropy
94) Color All Maps New – Jack Bedell List: Raegen Pietrucha
95) Continuity – Cynthia Arrieu-King List: Entropy
96) Coughing Up Planets – Samantha Fain List: Raegen Pietrucha
97) Curb – Divya Victor List: Entropy
98) Cut Woman – Dena Igusti List: Entropy
99) Daughter Isotope – Vidhu Aggarwal List: Entropy
100) Dead Dog Poems – Lynne Schmidt List: Entropy
101) Dēmos: An American Multitude – Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley List: Entropy
102) Descent – Lauren Russell List: Entropy
103) Diamonds – Camille Guthrie List: Raegen Pietrucha
104) Diary of a Ghost Girl – Shay Alexi List: Raegen Pietrucha
105) DMZ Colony – Don Mee Choi List: Entropy
106) Double Trio: Tej Bet, So’s Notice, Nerve Church – List: Library Journal
107) Dub – Alexis Pauline Gumbs List: Entropy
108) Eat Or We Both Starve – List: The Guardian
109) eat salt | gaze at the ocean – Junie Désil List: Entropy
110) Emporium – Aditi Machado List: Entropy
111) Erotecay – Palaces List: Raegen Pietrucha
112) Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora, Edited – Christopher Nelson List: Entropy
113) Even Shorn – List: Boston Globe
114) Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth – List: The Sundress Blog
115) Everyone Sang: A Poem for Every Feeling – William Sieghart, Emily Sutton List: Waterstones
116) Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart – Courtney LeBlanc List: Entropy
117) Extremely Lightweight Guns: Poems – Nikki Moustaki List: NY Public Library
118) Festivals of Patience: The Verse Poems of Arthur Rimbaud – Arthur Rimbaud Translated by Brian Kim Stefans List: Blackout
119) fist of wind – Nefertiti Asanti List: Entropy
120) Floaters: Poems – Martín Espada List: Library Journal
121) Flower Crowns and Fearsome Things – Amanda Lovelace List: Waterstones
122) Focal Point – Jenny Qi List: Raegen Pietrucha
123) Frances of the Wider Field – Laura Van Prooyen List: Entropy
124) fretwork – Michele Glazer List: Entropy
125) Futurepanic – Amish Trivedi List: Entropy
126) Gentefication – List: Boston Globe
127) Gentle Women – Megan Kaminski List: Entropy
128) God I Feel Modern Tonight: Poems from a Gal about Town – List: Goodreads
129) Golden Hour Minus the Glow – Lindsey Heatherly List: Raegen Pietrucha
130) Goldenrod: Poems – Maggie Smith List: Goodreads
131) Gradual Reduction to Bone – Kali Richmond List: Raegen Pietrucha
132) Greyhound – Aeon Ginsburg List: Entropy
133) Gut Botany – Petra Kuppers List: Entropy
134) Hard-Boiled Bugs for Breakfast: – List: SLJ
135) Heard-Hoard – List: Boston Globe
136) Hello, Earth!: Poems to Our Planet – Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Miren Asiain Lora List: SLJ
137) Her Lost Language – Jenny Mitchell List: Raegen Pietrucha
138) Hieroglyphs of the Inverted World – Rob Halpern List: Blackout
139) Hinge – Alycia Pirmohamed List: Raegen Pietrucha
140) History of Present Complaint – HLR List: Raegen Pietrucha
141) Home Is Not a Country – Safia Elhillo List: Goodreads
142) Homie – Danez Smith List: Entropy
143) Honorifics – Cynthia Miller List: Waterstones
144) How Far You Have Come: Musings on Beauty and Courage – List: Goodreads
145) How Not to Be Afraid of Everything – Jane Wong List: Entropy
146) How to Carry Water: Selected Poems of Lucille Clifton, Edited – Aracelis Girmay List: Entropy
147) How to Kill Yourself Instead of Your Children – Quincy Scott Jones List: Entropy
148) How to Not Be Afraid of Everything – List: The Sundress Blog
149) How to Wake a Butterfly – Loic Ekinga List: Raegen Pietrucha
150) How To Wash A Heart – Bhanu Kapil List: Entropy
151) Howdie-Skelp – List: Financial Times
152) Hypermobilities – Ellen Samuels List: Raegen Pietrucha
153) I Always Carry My Bones – Felicia Zamora List: Entropy
154) I Am the Rage – List: Goodreads
155) I’ll Fly Away – List: Goodreads
156) I’d Better Let You Go – Nikki Dudley List: Raegen Pietrucha
157) I’m Working Here. Collected Poems – Anna Mendelssohn List: Blackout
158) I/O – Madeleine Wattenberg List: Raegen Pietrucha
159) If God Is a Virus: Poems – Seema Yasmin List: NY Public Library
160) If I Tell You the Truth – Jasmin Kaur List: Goodreads
161) If This is the Age We End Discovery – Rosebud Ben-Oni List: Entropy
162) In Plains Sight – Bonnie Larson Staiger List: Raegen Pietrucha
163) In the Antarctic Circle – Dennis James Sweeney List: Entropy
164) Inheritance – Taylor Johnson List: Entropy
165) Inside Ocean Größt’s Time Capsule – Astra Papachristodoulou List: Raegen Pietrucha
166) Instrument – Dao Strom List: Entropy
167) Jump the Clock – Erica Hunt List: Entropy
168) Jungle Nama – Amitav Ghosh List: Waterstones
169) Kissing Other People or the House of Fame – Kay Gabriel List: Blackout
170) Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry – John Murillo List: Entropy
171) Late Human – List: Boston Globe
172) Latitude – Natasha Rao List: Entropy
173) Lean Against This Late Hour – Garous Abdolmalekian List: Entropy
174) Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance – Nikki Grimes List: SLJ
175) Liar – Jessica Cuello List: Raegen Pietrucha
176) Life in a Field – Katie Peterson List: Entropy
177) Like We Still Speak – Danielle Badra List: Entropy
178) Linear – Bailey Gee List: Raegen Pietrucha
179) Listen My Friend, This Is the Dream I Had Last Night – Cody Rose Clevidence List: Raegen Pietrucha
180) Little Pharma – List: Boston Globe
181) Living Weapon – List: The Guardian
182) Look Mom I’m a Poet – List: Goodreads
183) Loser – Josef Kaplan List: Entropy
184) Loudest When Startled – Lukas Ray Hall List: Raegen Pietrucha
185) Love and Other Poems – Alex Dimitrov List: Raegen Pietrucha
186) Lyonesse – List: The Guardian
187) Machete – Tomás Q. Morín List: Entropy
188) Mama Phife Represents: A Verse Memoir – Cheryl Boyce-Taylor List: NY Public Library
189) Many Different Kinds of Love – Michael Rosen List: The Guardian
190) Map of a Plantation – Jenny Mitchell List: Raegen Pietrucha
191) Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World – Kathryn Cowles List: Entropy
192) Maps for Migrants and Ghosts – Luisa A. Igloria List: Entropy
193) Me – List: Goodreads
194) Men Who Feed Pigeons – Selima Hill List: Waterstones
195) Midwest Infinity Doctrine – Jesse K. Baer List: Raegen Pietrucha
196) More Than Organs – Kay Ulanday Barrett List: Entropy
197) Mother Body – Diamond Forde List: Entropy
198) Mouths of Garden – List: The Sundress Blog
199) Music for the Dead and Resurrected – Valzhyna Mort List: Entropy
200) my yt mama – Mercedes Eng List: Entropy
201) Negotiations – Destiny O. Birdsong List: Entropy
202) Ninety-Two Surgically Enhanced Mannequins – Julian Esteban Torres Lopez List: Raegen Pietrucha
203) Niños: Poems for the Lost Children of Chile – María José Ferrada List: SLJ
204) Nishga – Jordan Abel List: Entropy
205) No Heroes – Isaura Ren List: Raegen Pietrucha
206) No Knowledge Is Complete Until It Passes Through My Body – Asiya Wadud List: Entropy
207) Not Go Away Is My Name – Alberto Rios List: Entropy
208) Notes on the Sonnets – Luke Kennard List: The Guardian
209) Now Let’s See What You’re Gonna Do – Katerina Gogou List: Blackout
210) Obit – Victoria Chang List: Entropy
211) Ordinary Psalms – Julia B. Levine List: Raegen Pietrucha
212) Original Kink – Jubi Arriola-Headley List: Entropy
213) Osebol – List: The Guardian
214) Out of Time: Poetry from the Climate Emergency – List: The Guardian
215) Outgoing Vessel – Ursula Andkjær Olsen List: Entropy
216) Pale Colors in a Tall Field – Carl Phillips List: Entropy
217) Pam Ayres on Animals – Pam Ayres, Ellie Snowdon List: Waterstones
218) pandemonium – Andrew McMillan List: Waterstones
219) Parallel Movement of the Hands – List: Boston Globe
220) Peach State – Adrienne Su List: Raegen Pietrucha
221) Perfect Black – Crystal Wilkinson List: Book Riot
222) Permanent Revolution – Gail Scott List: Blackout
223) Phone Bells Keep Ringing For Me – Choi Seungja List: Entropy
224) Pierrot’s Fingernails – Kit Schluter List: Entropy
225) Pillar of Books – Moon Bo Young List: Entropy
226) PMS: A Journal in Verse – Dot Devota List: Entropy
227) Postcards From Ragnarok – Katy Naylor List: Raegen Pietrucha
228) Postcolonial Love Poem – Natalie Diaz List: Entropy
229) Pregrets – Anselm Berrigan List: Entropy
230) Punks – John Keene List: Entropy
231) Reparations Now! – Ashley M. Jones List: Entropy
232) Requeening – Amanda Moore List: Entropy
233) Revolutionary Letters – Diane di Prima List: Blackout
234) RIFQA – Mohammed El-Kurd List: Entropy
235) Rotten Days in Late Summer – Ralf Webb List: Waterstones
236) Rough Song – Blanca Varela List: Entropy
237) Scratching the Surface – Dave Lewis – 2019 List: Raegen Pietrucha
238) Self-Portrait as Poems About Bad Poetry – Rachael Crosbie List: Raegen Pietrucha
239) Shade of Blue Trees – Kelly Cressio-Moeller List: Raegen Pietrucha
240) She Speaks in Tongues – Karla Van Vliet List: Raegen Pietrucha
241) Shine your Icy Crown (You Are Your Own Fairy Tale, #2) – List: Goodreads
242) Sky-Quake: Tremor of Heaven – Vicente Huidobro List: Entropy
243) Some Girls Walk into the Country They Are From – Sawako Nakayasu List: Entropy
244) Some of the Times – Gina Myers List: Entropy
245) Sometimes I Never Suffered – Shane McCrae List: Entropy
246) speculation, n. – Shayla Lawz List: Raegen Pietrucha
247) Spilled and Gone – List: Boston Globe
248) Standing on the Verge and Maggot Brain – Adrian Matejka List: Entropy
249) Starry Night, Blurry Dreams – Henn Kim List: Waterstones
250) Strays Pack 4 – Mary Ruefle, Julianne Neely, and Rachelle Toarmino List: Raegen Pietrucha
251) Strip – Jessica Abughattas List: Entropy
252) Summer Snow – Robert Hass List: Entropy
253) sur vie – Youna Kwak List: Entropy
254) Take Care – Eunice Andrada List: Entropy
255) Talking to the Moon – Marie K. Ricci List: Raegen Pietrucha
256) Tear and Share – Leia Belle Butler List: Raegen Pietrucha
257) Tenderness – Derrick Austin List: Entropy
258) Tethered to Stars: Poems – List: Library Journal
259) Text/iles – Imogen Reid List: Raegen Pietrucha
260) The Cipher – Molly Brodak List: Entropy
261) The Combustion Cycle – Will Alexander List: Entropy
262) The Complete Stories – Noah Warren List: Raegen Pietrucha
263) The Curious Thing – Sandra Lim List: Entropy
264) The Forward Book of Poetry 2022 – Various Poets List: Waterstones
265) The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems – Arthur Sze List: Boston Globe
266) The Golden Book – James Thomas Stevens List: Entropy
267) The Golden Horde. Revolutionary Italy, 1960-1977 Translated by Richard Braude – Nanni Balestrini, Primo Moroni List: Blackout
268) The Grief We’re Given – William Bortz List: Raegen Pietrucha
269) The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country – Amanda Gorman List: Goodreads
270) The Kids – List: The Guardian
271) The Last Thing – List: Boston Globe
272) The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present – Paul McCartney List: Waterstones
273) The Malevolent Volume – Justin Phillip Reed List: Entropy
274) The Naomi Letters – Rachel Mennies List: Raegen Pietrucha
275) The New World – Kelly Schirmann List: Entropy
276) The Owl and the Nightingale – Simon Armitage List: Waterstones
277) The Renunciations – List: Library Journal
278) The Second Longest Day of the Year – Jean Prokott List: Raegen Pietrucha
279) The Summer We Didn’t Die – Christine Coates List: Raegen Pietrucha
280) The Thicket – Kasey Jueds List: Raegen Pietrucha
281) The Time of Revolt Translated by David Broder – Donatella Di Cesare List: Blackout
282) The Untranslatable I – Roxanna Bennett List: Entropy
283) The Water Engine – Ankh Spice List: Raegen Pietrucha
284) The Way a Line Hallucinates Its Own Linearity – Danielle Vogel List: Entropy
285) Theatrix: Poetry Plays – Terese Svoboda List: Entropy
286) Theories of Performance – Jay Besemer List: Entropy
287) There Is No Unhappy Revolution: The Communism of Destitution Translated by Richard Braude – Marcello Tarì List: Blackout
288) This Is How the Bone Sings – W. Todd Kaneko List: Entropy
289) Thresholes – Lara Mimosa Montes List: Entropy
290) Tigress – Jessica Mookherjee List: Raegen Pietrucha
291) Tomorrow Is Beautiful – Sarah Crossan List: Waterstones
292) Too Much Midnight – Krista Franklin List: Entropy
293) Took House – Lauren Camp List: Entropy
294) Toxicon and Arachne – Joyelle McSweeney List: Entropy
295) Transversal: Poems – Urayoán Noel List: NY Public Library
296) Transverse – Lindsay Choi List: Entropy
297) Tuned – Kyla Houbolt List: Raegen Pietrucha
298) Twerkable Moments – Jason B. Crawford List: Raegen Pietrucha
299) Twice Alive – Forrest Gander List: Entropy
300) Un-American – Hafizah Geter List: Entropy
301) Upend – Claire Meuschke List: Entropy
302) Vertigo & Ghost: Poems – List: Library Journal
303) Vice-royal-ties – Julia Wong Kcomt List: Entropy
304) Villiany – Andrea Abi-Karam List: Entropy
305) Virginals – Larissa Szporluk List: Raegen Pietrucha
306) Ward – Ryan Vine List: Raegen Pietrucha
307) Washed Away – Shiksha Dheda List: Raegen Pietrucha
308) Water I Won’t Touch – Kayleb Rae Candrilli List: Entropy
309) Ways We Vanish – Todd Dillard List: Raegen Pietrucha
310) We Are Owed – Ariana Brown List: Entropy
311) We Die in Italy – Sarah Jean Alexander List: Raegen Pietrucha
312) West Portal – Benjamin Gucciardi List: Raegen Pietrucha
313) Whale and Vapor – Kim Kyung Ju List: Entropy
314) Whale Day – Billy Collins List: Waterstones
315) What Pecan Light – Han VanderHart List: Raegen Pietrucha
316) What the Chickadee Knows – Margaret Noodin List: Entropy
317) What We Bring Home – Susan Coultrap-McQuin List: Raegen Pietrucha
318) When We Make It – Elisabet Velasquez List: Goodreads
319) Where Flora Sings – Margaret Royall List: Raegen Pietrucha
320) Where the Wolf – Sally Rosen Kindred List: Raegen Pietrucha
321) White Skin, Black Fuel – Andreas Malm and The Zetkin Collective List: Blackout
322) Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems – Wanda Coleman List: Entropy
323) Wild Peach – s*an d. henry-smith List: Entropy
324) Winter Phoenix: Testimonies in Verse – Sophia Terazawa List: Entropy
325) Wonder: The Natural History Museum Poetry Book – Ana Sampson List: Waterstones
326) Wound from the Mouth of a Wound – torrin a. greathouse List: Entropy
327) Yellow Rain – Mai Der Vang List: Entropy
328) Yi Sang: Selected Works, Edited – Don Mee Choi List: Entropy
329) You Don’t Have to Be Everything: – List: SLJ
330) You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love – Yona Harvey List: Entropy
331) zero-zero – Maureen Seaton and Kristine Snodgrass List: Raegen Pietrucha
15 Best Poetry Book Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| Blackout | Best Books of 2021 |
| Book Riot | Best Books of 2021 |
| Boston Globe | Best Books of 2021 |
| Entropy | BEST OF 2020-2021: POETRY BOOKS & POETRY COLLECTIONS |
| Financial Times | Best books of 2021: Poetry |
| Goodreads | Best Poetry |
| The Guardian | The best poetry books of 2021 |
| Library Journal | Best Poetry of 2021 |
| NY Times | 100 Notable Books of 2021 |
| NY Public Library | Best Books for Adults 2021 |
| Publishers Weekly | Best Poetry |
| Raegen Pietrucha | Twitter Has Spoken: Check Out These Poetry Books From 2021 |
| SLJ | Best Poetry 2021 | SLJ Best Books |
| The Sundress Blog | Our Favourite Poetry Books of 2021 |
| Waterstones | 2021’s Best Poetry Books |
