I wanted to be really into poems my whole life. In elementary school, I took out an E.E. Cummings book of collected poems from my local library. It didn’t matter how many times I read it because I had no idea what the hell any of it meant. I mean, it’s E.E. Cummings. His poems were too brilliantly crafted for me. In high school I had a notebook of my own poems. Some of them were awful, some weren’t that bad. A lot of them were similar. I would write one, hate it, then rewrite it four more times until it was sufficient. I don’t even have that notebook anymore.
Although I still write poems from time to time, there’s no one poet that serves as my inspiration. I don’t read whole collections of poems in the library, nor do I obsess over any one poet or the other. But I love poetry. Poems give me a perspective about things I’d never reach in reality. And when I find a poem I love, it sends a shiver down my spine, and imprints itself into my head. Here are some of my favorite poems that you need to view.
I first heard this poem when someone performed it at my high school’s spoken poem festival. I had my own performance, so I was there at practice. I looked up the name of the poem, and have been obsessed with it since. One of the best spoken poem pieces I’ve heard.
This poem went viral at the women’s march when Ashley Judd performed it two years ago, but the poet of the original piece is a teenager named Nina, who performs it to perfection. Nina’s raspy voice paired with her body language help the poem flow with such anger that leaves a lasting impression on its viewers.
I have an entire Pinterest Board for poems. A lot are anonymous, and many are written by one-named people so I can’t track them down. But a regular appearance is made by Erin Hanson, and of all his poems I’ve read, this one is my favorite. I just love me a good poem about inner beauty.
As you’ll begin to see, a number of my favorite poems deal with suicide. But not all poems about suicide have to be depressing. Doc Luben perfects the theme by writing a poem with disconnected stories that can be about love or death, and it’s simply one of the most beautiful poems I’ve heard.
I wrote an article on Her Campus around September about fat discrimination by doctors. Patients who are overweight are being misdiagnosed because some doctors blame all problems on weight. It’s something I’ve experienced myself, and Rachel Wiley puts it into a perfect perspective. She would rather stop going to the doctor than to be hurt, the same decision I made.
Rap is a form of poetry; it literally stands for “Rhyme and Poetry”. Joyner Lucas writes and performs raps about controversial topics, and this political piece one is one of his best. It racked up over 100 million views in a little over a year, and for good reason.
My English teacher freshman year of high school showed this animated piece to our class. I cried so damn hard when I watched it. I can’t even explain it to you, you just need to watch it. If you’ve ever experienced bullying in your life, Shane’s work will hit you hard.
I found this piece by accident when looking for a story to write into my lesson plans, as an education major. I ended up using another one of Sage Coffey’s pieces to teach middle schoolers, but this one remains my favorite. It’s a comic, written like a children’s book, which makes it so unique.
Another poem I found by accident when I was looking for the name of a poet for my EN180 class, I fell in love with this poem. It’s hard to capture the emotion, stresses, and pauses of spoken word into a written piece, but Franny Choi figured it out. This poem reads beautifully, with a feminist undertone I’m addicted to.
I saved this poem for last because it’s my all time favorite. I reference it often when I need the motivation to fight depression, which is what a poem should do: teach you something. This taught me to fight for the little reasons. The original video was unfortunately deleted, but there are reuploads. I highly recommend becoming addicted to it as I have.