"Here, Bullet" by Brian Turner. Poetry of the Iraq war.
"In the Surgical Theatre" by Dana Levin. Medical, experimental.
"Black Aperture" by Matt Rasmussen. About his brother's suicide.
"Homie" by Danez Smith. Hard to pin down but amazing book. Stream of consciousness, experimental, explores queerness and blackness.
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown. Phenomenal. Explores being black in America, more historicism than Danez's collection.
"Frank" by Dianne Seuss. Powerful and beautiful. Modern lyrics. All sonnets. Will change the way you think about what poetry is. Stunning collection.
"Post colonial Love Poem" by Natalie Diaz. What it sounds like :) really cool book
"When I Grow Up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities" by Chen Chen. A little bit more fun.
All of these, of you're not familiar with contemporary verse, will challenge your notions of "what poetry is."
Here's my advice: just read it and experience it. It's supposed to be fun! None of these works are puzzles to be solved, or have hidden secret meanings. They are all works of art, and all experiences of them are valid. Enjoy!
Orangey Porangey
Bonecrusher Two${numbers}'
Poetry examples
Multiply well
Thanking you: After a
Inquisitorial
Reading spree, some of them
Ringing a bell
Anyone have any contemporary poetry recommendations?
> ...fewer people attend poetry readings in the United States than in Russia.
This is probably still true. I was surprised to discover that at music concerts (not pop, but the organisational jubilee variety) there are poetry readings in between the musical numbers.
A soviet classroom activity (which may or may not still be used in Putin's RF) was to issue famous lines from classic poems to the class — and each student had to incorporate that line into a composition of their own.
Then again, russian peasants also had their answer to United States street vernacular tradition in the частушка: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBpY8w6X_JI
here, MC Gram spitting mad flow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeuEFZHKYzM
(YT offered me "Chastushki for kids", so this genre even sometime comes in a SFW version!)