 Hi everyone, my name is Jasmine, welcome or welcome back to my channel. Today I'm coming at you with another five book recommendations video. As always I will leave a link to the playlist with all of my five book recommendations videos in it in case you want to check any of the other ones out. I have recommendation videos for literary fiction, classics, historical fiction, fantasy, children's fiction, you get the gist. Today's recommendation video is going to be all about poetry and I'm pretty excited for this list. Whether or not you already love poetry and you've read a ton of it or you haven't read poetry at all, whether or not you want something relevant and hard-hitting or something more fantastical feeling, hopefully this list has something for everyone. So the first collection that I'm going to be recommending today is Homie by Danez Smith. This is the newest collection by contemporary poet Danez Smith. I have read and loved both this collection by Danez Smith and Danez Smith's earlier collection Don't Call Us Dead, which I actually recommended in my Pride Month recommendations video. Danez Smith is a queer non-binary American poet. Their poems explore themes of self-identity, as well as tons of social and political issues that are at the heart of present-day America. This one in particular explores themes of race and queerness and violence and most predominantly friendship. If you've seen many of my videos, you will probably know by now that I am a massive fan of Danez Smith's poetry. They are one of the best contemporary poets writing today. There is no doubt in my mind. I know that they are being recommended a ton at the moment, especially in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, but I think they deserve all of the praise that I am here to add my voice. This collection is so important, it's incredibly relevant, it delves into the idea of otherness in many of its forms, and it is bold and unapologetic and inclusive as it does so. The poems in here are striking, the imagery is so vibrant, they also play around with sound and rhythm so effectively. While it's probably true that all poetry is better read aloud, this collection in particular just shines when you read it out loud. And as brilliant and superbly crafted as this collection is, it isn't inaccessible. If you haven't read much poetry before, you will still gain something from reading this collection, I swear. So yes, this is just a beautiful collection. I cannot recommend it more highly, it will shock you, it will educate you, it will affect you emotionally. Please just give it a go. The next collection I'm going to talk about today is The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy. I know that none of you are shocked, but this wouldn't be a poetry recommendations video from me if I didn't recommend a collection by my favorite poet, so here we are. This is one of Carol Ann Duffy's many poetry collections. It was published around a decade ago now, I think. As in all of her collections, this one explores a host of themes. We have poems about love, we have poems about political anger, we have poems about family, but throughout this whole collection there is the recurring imagery of bees. The poems in here are deeply personal, but at the same time they feel universal. The themes feel timeless, but at the same time extraordinarily timely. Her wordplay is creative and playful and so inventive, her imagery is sublime. And I love the way in which the bees are woven throughout this whole collection, it is fantastic. In some of the poems the bees are sent to stage, in others they are briefly mentioned, or there is just some illusion to them, but their representation of beauty and grace and what ultimately we should be protecting is present throughout. It's so wonderful. Carol Ann Duffy is just the best if you're looking for a solid, reliable poetry collection that is going to impress you and challenge you and be thoroughly enjoyable at the same time, then definitely pick this one up. The next collection I'm going to recommend today is Witch by Rebecca Tamas. This is another contemporary poetry collection, this one being a feminist exploration of sex and the body and gender and politics. All set within a framework of witchcraft and mysticism. So this is definitely the strangest and quirkiest collection I'm recommending today, and I will say that this is the one that I've found to be the most challenging to read. The poems in this collection are super dark, super unsettling, super gritty. Some of the poems are hexes, some of the poems are spells, the language throughout is super visceral. Huge content warnings for violent and often filthy imagery in this collection, so please bear that in mind. But every word in this collection feels so intentional, sometimes the poems are quite soft and lyrical, other times they are super sharp, and that is something that I really enjoyed whilst reading. And throughout all of this, this collection is really intelligently and wittily exploring tons of really important, wider, relevant themes. As for why I found this collection to be quite a challenging read, the poems in here are definitely quite obscure. A lot of the time I found myself to be just taking the poems in on a surface level, just basking in all of the sounds and the imagery. And that is great, that is not necessarily a bad thing at all, but I just know that there is so much more in this collection that went over my head. And I'm sure a lot of that will surface for me on a reread, which I'm really looking forward to. But honestly, this collection just provided me with such a unique reading experience. It was incredibly evocative and very powerful. And so if this one sounds interesting to you, I would definitely recommend giving it a go. And if by any chance any of you have already read this collection, I would love to know your thoughts on it. The fourth collection that I'm going to recommend today is The Perseverance by Raymond Attrabas. This is a debut contemporary poetry collection by British Jamaican poet Raymond Attrabas. It explores the poet's experiences being deaf, being biracial, and the death of his father, among other things. So firstly, this is a super valuable read when it comes to the topic of deafness. The collection explores Raymond's own experiences with being deaf as well as deaf history. It also includes illustrations of various signs throughout. I think it certainly shines a light on a lot of the ignorance surrounding deafness, at least in my case personally. The idea of living between two worlds and that space in between is also something that is explored highly in this collection. Not only regarding Raymond living between the hearing and the deaf communities, but also living between two communities culturally. The idea of not being British enough or not being Jamaican enough comes up a few times. As for the structure and the language use in the poems, they are pretty experimental, I would say. They definitely gave me John McCullough vibes, who is a poet I adore. So yes, I would definitely recommend picking up this collection. I really enjoyed it. And as a debut, I thought it was particularly great. Raymond Attrabas clearly has tons of potential and I think his poetry is just going to get better and better. And finally today I'm going to recommend to you Kingdomland by Rachel Allen. This is Rachel Allen's debut work and it is a very fantastical feeling poetry collection. It is full of surreal imagery, strange incidences, there is a lot of violence and animal imagery, but throughout the collection it also speaks to many very real everyday occurrences. This collection definitely has quite an eerie feel to it. All of the lines are blurred. It has that feeling of the uncanny running throughout it, where things feel very familiar, but slightly off. The poems in here ultimately felt very haunting and beautiful to me. There are tons of descriptions that just sweep you up. I will say that I didn't have the strongest emotional connection to this collection. That isn't what this collection did for me. I didn't really relate to a lot of the poems on a personal level. But if you are interested in surreal, slightly weird poetry that evokes wonderful imagery, then definitely give this one a go. So there we have it. Five more of my poetry collection recommendations for you guys. Please let me know if you've read any of these collections and what you thought of them. And of course, please let me know any poetry recommendations that you have for me down below. Thank you so much for watching everyone. I really, really do appreciate it. Please don't forget that I'm going to be doing a Q&A soon to celebrate 5k subscribers. So if you do have a question that you would like me to answer in my Q&A, it doesn't have to be about books. It can be about anything to do with my life. Then please let me know down below in the comments. I'm really looking forward to filming that video. Thanks again guys. I will hopefully see you soon in my next video. Bye!