Poetry
14 Poetry Books You Should Add To Your 2020 Reading List
Poetry makes the world go round.
Only 55% Of Adults Can Pass This Really Hard GCSE English Quiz
Lit & Lang teaming up to take you down.
We'll Guess Which Hogwarts House You're In Based On The Poem You Write
Roses are red, violets are blue. If you like Harry Potter, this one's for you!
Do You Actually Know The Difference Between Taylor Swift And History's Greatest Poets?
It's harder than it sounds.
Tell Us Which Song Lyrics Get You Seriously All Choked Up
We've all cried over a song, haven't we?
12 Books By (And About) Lesbians And Bisexual Women To Read This Pride Month
Invite queer women from different decades to hang out with you from this mix of older and modern classics.
Two Poems For Black Mothers In America
"But look at me. Still on my hands and knees—still pushing."
13 Books By Queer Poets To Add To Your Reading List
Celebrate National Poetry Month with these evocative, groundbreaking collections.
I Did A Close Reading Of The Poem Justin Bieber Wrote Hailey So You Don't Have To
"How big and how vast our world is around us / So grateful for god we were lost but he found us."
15 Beautiful Lines Written By Mary Oliver
The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet died today at age 83.
Pulitzer Prize–Winning Poet Mary Oliver Has Died At 83
Celebrated for her nature-inspired poems, Oliver was named “the country’s best-selling poet.”
Poetry: After Watching “Surviving R. Kelly”
"People want me to believe / there’s a difference when the result / is the same, same, same."
10 Poets On Their Favorite Poetry Collections Of 2018
Jenny Xie, Tommy Pico, Sam Sax, and seven other poets share their favorite collections of the year.
12 Accomplished Authors Give Their Book Recommendations
Each month this year, we asked writers like Meg Wolitzer, Tayari Jones, and Sloane Crosley what they’ve been reading. Here are their picks.
Poetry: "Brooklyn, Ocean Avenue. 2006"
"So here I am / lying next to my husband, / children tucked into their bunks, / divorce papers nesting / in a printer on 138th"
Here Are The 2018 National Book Award Winners
The winners were revealed at the 69th National Book Awards ceremony.
Do You Know These Famous Poems By Their First Lines?
Finally, a quiz for high school English teachers.
If You're Having A Bad Day, Follow These Instagram 15 Poets
For when you just want to feel a little better.
Poetry: "train song"
"the train today / is every reason / i love new york / as a place / to visit / but not die in."
Poetry: "TO THE QUEER WOMAN WHO ASKED ME IF I HAVE A DICK"
"I don’t owe you an explanation. / No one owes anyone their body."
Poetry: "Tamara"
"Tamara was the Flo-Jo of elementary school. / If you were lucky, / you’d catch a glimpse of her trailing hair / before she reached the finish line."
Poetry: “The Places We Are Not”
“are you ok is the hook / are you ok is code for / we are not ok / but please remind me you are breathing.”
Poetry: "What Happened"
"We remember the story / we commit to. Then, we tell / ourselves it happened."
How To Start A Heartsong Journal, AKA An Encyclopedia Of You
It's like a little scrapbook of the soul.
12 Portraits Of Poets Show Sides You Really Wouldn't Expect
These writers are anything but boring.
This Slam Poet Addressed The Effects Catcalling Can Have On Women
"Men have yelled at me in the street since I was twelve."
Poetry: "which art? what fact?"
"what histories are natural & what artifacts art? / how do we decide the borders of a country / or an era or a solar system? when did we decide / our planet meant only this collection of green?"
Poetry: "Everything Is Restored" And "Death Of A Child"
Two powerful poems about loss.
We Asked A Poetry Professor To Critique Those “Broems” On LinkedIn
“The achievement of 'Step 15: Profit' is as simple as reciting the meditative cadences found in this poem.”
Slam Poet Shamir Reuben Has Been Accused Of Sexually Harassing Minors
In a Facebook post, multiple women shared stories of how Reuben made sexual advances toward them when they were minors.
What's Your Favorite Line Of Poetry?
"My words echo, thus, in your mind." —T. S. Eliot
20 Modern Indian Poets Who Will Make You Fall In Love With Poetry
Poetry is not dead.
Poetry: "Trophy"
What did Chuck really bring home from the lake?
The 13 Best Poetry Books Of 2017
Here are the poetry collections that we absolutely loved in 2017. (Ranked in no particular order.)
13 Poems That Will Move You
From verse about Columbus Day to trying to masturbate on election night — these poems have range.
42 Gifts Under $10 That Won't Make You Seem Cheap
Yep, I totally bought this at a fancy boutique.
If You Love Music, Here Are 17 Books To Add To Your Reading List
From memoirs to coffee-table books to how music affects your brain, recommendations from BuzzFeed editors!
Here Are The 2017 National Book Award Winners
The winners were revealed at the 68th National Book Awards ceremony.
This Couple Published A Book Of Poetry Based On Famous Vines And It's A Bestseller
Based on a variety of memes, milk and vine takes inspiration from the bestselling milk and honey, and it's way, way, better.
25 Awesomely Spooky Products For Tim Burton Lovers
Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange?
Poem: "Woo Woo Roll Deep"
"You can’t tell us / shit. We always down for the miracle."
Poetry: "Columbus"
"What else / have I claimed that was not mine?"
Poem: "Cotton Candy"
"My mother wept nightly for eight years / my living curled its hands / around her throat not choking exactly."
28 Exciting New Books You Need To Read This Fall
New books by Salman Rushdie, Jennifer Egan, Jesmyn Ward, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and John Green, oh my!
Poem: "Living On Earth" By Alex Dimitrov
"What does the moon know of our language, / our care for its perceived loneliness / which may be its one joy."
The Problem With Rupi Kaur's Poetry
The milk and honey author's use of unspecified collective trauma in her quest to depict the quintessential South Asian female experience feels disingenuous.
Poem: "Buen Esqueleto" By Natalie Scenters-Zapico
"Life is short, & I show them how to talk / to police without opening the door / how /to leave the social security number blank / on the exam, I tell this to mis hijas."
Sherman Alexie on How Trump is Turning the US Into a Reservation
Sherman Alexie on what it means for Trump to treat the entire country like a reservation — and writing a memoir about a great woman who was not a great mother.
It's Time To Find Out Which Famous Poet You're Most Like
There are no bad results when it comes to good poetry.
Just 13 Forgotten About Haikus Written By Chris Pratt In 2011
These speak for themselves.
21 Ridiculously Clever Mugs That Are 100% Funnier Than You
I take my coffee with milk, sugar, and a splash of humor. The products in this post were updated in October 2017.
How Maya Angelou Taught Me To Live A Fuller Life
It wasn’t until Maya Angelou died that the full story of her life opened up to me, and helped me open up my own life in turn.
Poem: "It’s Not Fitness, It’s A Lifestyle" By Nicole Sealey
"I'm waiting for a white woman / in this overpriced Equinox / to mistake me for someone other / than a paying member."
Poem: "On The Night Of The Election" By Franny Choi
"Is there anything that works / that isn’t a machine for killing, / or doomed to collapse, or stolen / from the sweat of the hungry?"
Here Are The 2017 Pulitzer Prize Winners For Letters And Drama
Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Underground Railroad; Lynn Nottage's Sweat took home the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
31 Incredible New Books You Need To Read This Spring
It's a whole new season of fresh reads!
Poem: "I Knew I Wasn't Poor" By Jan Beatty
"I knew I wasn’t poor, / because I had a choice: / buy tampons or birth control pills."
Four Love Poems For Black Women By Black Women
We asked poet Morgan Parker to curate a suite of poems in celebration of Valentine's Day.
21 Of The Most Romantic Quotes In Literature
"If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.” ―Alfred Tennyson
If You've Ever Read A Book Or Wanted A Tattoo, You HAVE To Read About This Awesome Tattoo Artist/Writer
The writers of today no longer use Word.
Poem: "When The Therapist Asks You To Recount, You Have To Say It" By Aricka Foreman
"...how you become / the kind of woman who learns when to shut up and take it."
14 Great Poems To Read On Inauguration Day
There's no official inaugural poem this year, so here are 14 that describe America as it is and as it could be.
27 Books Everyone In America Should Read
These novels, essay collections, memoirs, histories, and more will help you understand why there is no feminism without intersectionality, why we should remember our history before we repeat it, and why Roe v. Wade is a lot more tenuous than you might think.
Poem: "Barbershop" By Phillip B. Williams
"So I’m sitting in the barber shop getting my hair cut when this dude say he would kill his son if he found out he was gay..."
The 32 Most Exciting Books Coming In 2017
Here are the books we can’t wait to read in 2017! (Ranked in no particular order.)
15 Literary Baby Names That’ll Make You Want To Have Children
What's in a name? A lot, actually.
Poem: "Record" By Danniel Schoonebeek
"Strike from yourself / these names that you’ve given yourself / and name each part of yourself once again."
The 19 Best Literary Debuts Of 2016
Here are the most exciting new voices in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in 2016 (ranked in no particular order).
22 Poems That Got You Through 2016
Amidst the ongoing wars over culture, truth and language that defined 2016, here are some of poems we read in order to find America's pulse.
The 11 Best Poetry Books Of 2016
Here are the poetry collections that we absolutely loved in 2016. (Ranked in no particular order.)
Poem: "A New National Anthem" By Ada Limón
"Every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal / snaking underneath us as we blindly sing / the high notes..."
Here Are The 2016 National Book Award Winners
The winners were revealed at the 67th National Book Awards ceremony.
14 Beautiful Haikus About, Uh, Current Events
Just some poems about some things that have been going on lately.
Poem: "Partial Hospitalization" By Donika Kelly
"I promised no new doors / into my body."
Poem: "You're Dead, America" By Danez Smith
"you’re dead, America / & where you died / grew something worse"
Poem: "The Plums" By Anis Mojgani
"The plums rain down and we feel the wind made by their bodies passing before the thuds of them hitting the soft ground."
Poem: "Land Where My Father Died" By Fatimah Asghar
"Land that mispronounces my grief land that calls my eulogy exotic land that makes a graveyard of my other land..."
Poem: "Brown Girl Dreaming" By Jacqueline Woodson
"Come back to the classroom, my pretty brown girl / I fear you’re halfway around the world."
We Asked British Poets To Share Their Favourite Poems For National Poetry Day
This year's theme is “messages”.
Poem: "Minefields" By Kyle Dargan
"Many men are booby traps. You think you're picking up a song, a shield, or a heart, then, lo and behold, there's a man inside."
Women From A Kerala Medical College Created Hundreds Of Haikus To Protest Period Shaming
"Do you know why a woman bleeds? She bleeds for glee. For happiness. And to create a new life."
Poem: "Resignation" By Jameson Fitzpatrick
"No, see, / spite is so much easier than love..."
Poem: "Huk-Huk" By Robin Coste Lewis
"The dogs do not speak English / So you curse each one in French..."
Poem: "Ode To Rereading Rimbaud In Lubbock, Texas" By Chen Chen
"So why isn’t Lubbock the new Fire Island or P-town? For months I dreamt it was, could be."
"Roses Are Red" Poems + The "Maury Show" = Poetry Perfection
The "Maury" show makes everything better. Even poetry.
Poem: "Sixty" By Mark Doty
"Write the night enormous. / Is that what souls are for?"
Poem: "Aubade With Sage And Lemon" By Tarfia Faizullah
"A few / more minutes, love, / he said, a few more / hours."
Three New Poems By Nick Flynn
"I’ll have another / child, a back-up, in / another city, with / another woman, just / in case."
Poem: "Fairy Tale" By Sam Sax
"can you believe / there’s freedom in being so out / of control you can pass through / a man unseen"
Bad High School Poetry
“Took back my lipgloss back biatch Give back the other Or no J crew polo tee for you.”
Poem: "Family Portrait As Denoument" By Traci Brimhall
A new poem from BuzzFeed READER.
22 Accidental Poems That Will Make You Laugh
"I love you, you love me, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3."
Poem: "Catching Copper" By Natalie Diaz
A new poem for BuzzFeed READER.
17 Poems To Read When The World Is Too Much
“Where does it hurt? Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere.”
Poem: "Social Skills Training" By Solmaz Sharif
A new poem for BuzzFeed READER from Sharif's forthcoming collection Look.
This Poem Shows The Effect Eating Disorders Have On People's Lives
"Soon enough you feel like you’re in control again."
Poem: "The Five Stages Of Drowning" By Patricia Smith
A new prose poem for READER from Patricia Smith.
This Is Where We Broke Up
“Maybe you cared more than I thought…”
