April is National Poetry Month! To celebrate, here are the names and samples of 10 incredible female poets who you should take a look at this month.
1. Kinsale Hueston
Quote from “Red Wrists”
Red is the color of the setting sun,
an unadulterated deity pulling her needle
backwards through black wool. She leaves blushing
pinpricks oozing ghosts over the left horizon.
Dying winter filters in through smoky trees that whistle
with youth and charity. She crouches, pensive, a tendril
of sweet-smelling mist laps up the hue with her hungry eyes.
Red wrists, red mind, red lips.
2. Rowan Blanchard
“Selfie”
I am the Mona Lisa
Staring at myself in my magic
And I laugh
Cause you get so frightened by my Perfection
And you should be
This being can move mountains
This being can start wars
And Being is a war
And I know it
And no one is allowed to know?
Well, too late
Now don’t touch the art
3. Nayyirah Waheed
Poem from her book “Salt”
sometimes the night wakes in the
middle of me.
and I can do nothing
but
become the moon.
4. Lang Leav
“Strength”
Don’t let them tell you that your pain should be
confined to the past, that it bears no relevance to the present.
Your pain is part of who you are.
They don’t know how strong that makes you.
5. Cleo Wade
“A love note to my body”
a love note to my body:
first of all,
I want to say
thank you.
for the heart you kept beating
even when it was broken
for every answer you gave me in my gut
for loving me back
even when I didn’t know how to love you
for every time you recovered when I pushed you past our limits
for today,
for waking up
6. Caroline Kaufman
Untitled.
they all want to see me burn, their hands are full of matches
my fingertips are catching sparks – but there will be no ashes
even if you scorch my skin, a fire will remain
the sticks and stones you throw are only kindling my flame
7. Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Quotes from “Invitation”
Can you believe there are humans who don’t value
the feel of a good bite and embrace at least once a day?
Underneath you, narwhals spin upside down
while their singular tooth needles you
like a compass pointed towards home. If you dive
deep enough where imperial volutes and hatchet fish
swim, you will find all the colors humans have not yet
named, and wide caves of black coral and clamshell…
…Who knows what will happen next? And if you still want
to look up, I hope you see the dark sky as oceanic —
boundless, limitless — like all the shades of blue in a glacier.
Listen how this planet spins with so much fin, wing, and fur.
8. Warsan Shire
Quote from “For Women who are Difficult to Love”
and you tried to change didn’t you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do love
split his head open?
you can’t make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.
9. Jamila Woods
Quote from “Blk Girl Art”
Poems are bullshit unless they are eyeglasses, honey
tea with lemon, hot water bottles on tummies. I want
poems my grandma wants to tell the ladies at church
about. I want orange potato words soaking in the pot
til their skins fall off, words you burn your tongue on,
words on sale two for one, words that keep my feet dry.
10. Jenny Zhang
Quote from “Everyone’s Girlfriend”
I want to be brilliant
like tiny worms that live
inside your head are brilliant
like your head was brilliant
when you told me to have at least
some reason to exist
and I do exist for some reason
for some reason I am not everyone