10 Poems that Made me a Better Poet
I am “a feral poet.” A term I borrowed from poet Alexis Rhone Fancher, meaning: I have no MFA, or formal training. I took only one poetry class in college. And it’s way too embarrassing to speak of.
Sure, I have been lucky to attend a handful of workshops with some really badass teachers, but the first formal workshop, the first one with a fancy faculty and an expensive price tag, I did not attend until after my manuscript had been accepted by my number one publisher.
Want to know my secret?
It’s easy! I was so in love with poetry and language that I found a way in. When I first started writing poems, I found poets who lit me up. I bought their books, I marked the poems that took my breath away. I underlined and flagged. I scribbled in margins. I spoke with the page. I sat with each stanza and each line, sometimes for hours. Learning from them. Listening to them.
Reading intentionally, because I knew that
1) I couldn’t afford an MFA and didn’t see that changing in the future.
2) That there wasn’t a word or line break that couldn’t teach me something.
During this time, I started being, what I called, a poetry mechanic. I would take a poem I really loved and break it down piece by piece: scrap it into metaphors, images, meter, volta. I would look under the hood to see how it was built. Then I would try to rebuild with my own parts (words, ideas), whether it was structure, tone, or a really badass title in all its muscle and heavy lifting.
In a 2020 interview with the American Literary Review, I said: “All I have learned I learned from reading with care and curiosity. Read like a poet whose only teacher is the page, interact with the text, interrogate its choice, look at its blueprints and imagine how the poet crafted it. Apply what you learned. Make it your own. But pay attention; every single poem has something that will transform your writing if you read close enough.
Again: every single poem has something that will transform your writing if you read close enough. This is important to remember. Usually, when our writing has stalled it is because our reading has stalled too.
This year I will be launching my YouTube Series, where I hope to break down each one poem per episode and talk about what makes them tick, what we can learn from them, and how we can apply it to our own writing. More to come on that later.
Here are 10 poems that made me a better poet, I offer them to you to celebrate this beautiful month.
“To the Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall” by Kim Addonizio -“Joy is coming.” Queen of the Volta, Kim shows you the pain of womanhood in such clear images you could touch them. Also, this poem is a masterclass in perfect endings.
“The Price of Rain” by Franny Choi -“You can’t buy a thunderstorm, nor should you bring one back from the dead.” The surrealness and tension of this poem make it a masterpiece I come back to time and time again. I love the risk and wildness in this poem and in Choi’s work in general.
“BBHMM” by Tiana Clark -Based on the Rihanna music video “Bitch Better Have My Money” this type of ekphrasis poem interrogates language through leaps from pop culture to power to womanhood, in a way that serves both tenderness and teeth.
“Dementia, my Darling” by Brendan Constantine-I have never seen a form and content work so well to inform one another. The poem is a forever haunt and shows what can be achieved when we decide to break some rules. HERE is the poem on a Google Doc so you can also see it on the page.
Word Problem by Mila Cuda -Talk about wordplay! Cuda was West Coast Youth Poet Laureate and is one of the brightest youth poets on the scene today. Look for her spitting wisdom in Get Lit’s first feature film, Summertime, which premiered in Sundance 2020.
Everything will Hurt for Awhile -If you want to learn the work a title should really do, read this poem. Read this poem and then email to talk about what a genius Ruth Awad is. Also please note that Men Compliment Me is also just wow. Total wow.
Class of Whatever by Annelyse Gelman- Playful and poignant this poem shows how surprise is what keeps us coming back to each line. No complex language, no overwrought metaphors, just a simple list of how complicated it is to be human.
There are Birds Here” by Jammal May- This poem breaks the fourth wall by breaking readers perception. It shows what is, by telling you what’s not. Also, the ending is one of my favorites of all time.
Hydrophobia by sam sax: I saw sax perform this poem at his Bury It book release party, by the second stanza in my husband and I both looked at each other and said “Holy shit.” Form and shifting perceptions make this poem an all-time standout of mine.
“5 pm. Tuesday, August 23, 2005” -This is the poem that changed my life. Literally. Written in the voice of Hurricane Katrina, this poem showed me how dangerous and sharp a poem could be. This poem is a tropical storm of surprises from metaphor to persona. Also contains one of my favorite lines of all time, “Every woman begins as weather.” If you haven’t read Blood Dazzler, please do so today. Reading this book was the closest thing to an MFA I’ve got!
Happy reading. If you want to learn more about the techniques used in these poems, I teach monthly generative workshops where we break down poems in terms of technique with graphic organizers and slides to then replicate those “poetry moves” and apply them to your own work. Because poetry should be inspiring, accessible, and most importantly fun!
KELLY GRACE THOMAS is an ocean-obsessed Aries from Jersey. She is a self-taught poet, editor, educator and author. Kelly is the winner of the 2020 Jane Underwood Poetry Prize and 2017 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from Rattle, 2018 finalist for the Rita Dove Poetry Award and multiple pushcart prize nominee. Her first full-length collection, Boat Burned, released with YesYes Books in January 2020. Kelly’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in: Best New Poets 2019, Los Angeles Review, Redivider, Muzzle, Sixth Finch and more. Kelly is the Director of Education for Get Lit and the co-author of Words Ignite. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband Omid. www.kellygracethomas.com