Poetry: Home
Meet New York State Poet Laureate, Alicia Ostriker
Alicia Ostriker was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1937. Ostriker received a BA from Brandeis University in 1959 and an MA and PhD in literature, in 1961 and 1964 respectively, from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
She is the author of sixteen poetry collections, including The Volcano and After: Selected and New Poems, 2002-2019 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020); Waiting for the Light (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017), which received the 2017 Berru Award in Memory of Ruth and Bernie Weinflash from the Jewish Book Council; The Crack in Everything (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996), which was a National Book Award finalist and more.
She is professor emerita of English at Rutgers University, and a faculty member of the Drew University's Poetry MFA program. In 2018, she was named New York Poet by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Ostriker served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2015 to 2021. She lives in New York City. https://poets.org/poet/alicia-ostriker
Click here to read poems by Alicia Ostriker.
Could a Daily Poetry Podcast Save Your Mental Health?
Read about "The Slowdown", from former U.S. Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith, the Poetry Foundation, and American Public Media. For five minutes every weekday, Smith introduces a new poem, explains why she selected that poem, and reads it. That’s the whole podcast.
Click on picture to get to Podcast.
The GPL Poetry Collection
Here is just a sample of some of the poetry books in the GPL collection.
Poetry titles begin in the 811 area of non-fiction. Enjoy!
How to Love a Country by Call Number: 811.54 BPublication Date: 2019-03-26The diverse poems in this collection form a mosaic of seemingly varied topics- the Pulse Nightclub massacre; an unexpected encounter on a visit to Cuba; the forced exile of 8,500 Navajos in 1868; the arrival of a young Chinese woman at Angel Island in 1938; the incarceration of a gifted writer; and the poet's abiding love for his partner, who he is finally allowed to wed. But despite each poem's unique subject matter or occasion, all are fundamentally asking one overwhelming question- how to love this country?
Tropic of Squalor by Call Number: 811.54 KPublication Date: 2018-05-08A new volume of poetry from the New York Times bestselling and esteemed author of The Liar's Club and Lit. Long before she earned accolades for her genre-defining memoirs, Mary Karr was winning poetry prizes. Now the beloved author returns with a collection of bracing poems as visceral and deeply felt and hilarious as her memoirs.
Wade in the Water by Call Number: 811.6 SPublication Date: 2018-04-03In Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith boldly ties America's contemporary moment both to our nation's fraught founding history and to a sense of the spirit, the everlasting. These are poems of sliding scale: some capture a flicker of song or memory; some collage an array of documents and voices; and some push past the known world into the haunted, the holy. Smith's signature voice--inquisitive, lyrical, and wry--turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother, and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men, and violence. Wade in the Water is a potent and luminous book by one of America's essential poets.
GPL Audiobooks ~ Poetry
Aimless Love by Call Number: AUD CD 811.5 C (1CD)Publication Date: 2013-10-22From the two-term Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins comes his first compilation of new and selected poems in twelve years. Aimless Love combines new poems with selections from four previous books--Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry, Ballistics, and Horoscopes for the Dead.
Hafiz by Call Number: AUD CD 891.552 H (1CD)Publication Date: 2002-04-01In modern-day Persia, the 14th-century poet Hafiz remains the most treasured voice of his homeland--a place where his work outsells Rumi, and even the Koran. Yet only recently have Westerners come to know this wild Sufi mystic's astonishing verses on love and spiritual longing. Now, with Hafiz: The Scent of Light, you will join Daniel Ladinsky--the acclaimed translator of The Gift--to revel in more than 30 of Hafiz' most stirring works.
Latinx Poetry
- U.S. Latinx Voices in Poetry
Exploring Latino/a American poetry and culture, this website includes a robust list of Latinx poets, articles, audio/video--excellent resource!
Illustration by CHema Skandal
Poets & Writers
Did you know the library subscribes to Poets and Writers magazine? Find copies on the second floor, and check out an issue for a week.
Poetry Foundation
Read poems. Read articles about poets. Read Poetry reviews. Listen to podcasts. Read the current and past issues of Poetry Magazine. Learn about all things poetry!
Meet Westchester County's Poet Laureate, B.K. Fischer
In January 2021, the Westchester County Executive, George Latimer announced the county's "inaugural poet laureate, B.K. Fischer of Sleepy Hollow. Fischer, who has taught throughout Westchester and at Columbia University in Manhattan, is the author of five books of poetry — “Ceive,” “Radioapocrypha,” “My Lover’s Discourse,” “St. Rage’s Vault” and “Mutiny Gallery,” as well as a critical study, “Museum Mediations: Reframing Ekphrasis in Contemporary American Poetry,” which explores poems inspired by the visual arts. Her poems and essays have appeared in The New York Times; The Paris Review; Kenyon Review; Boston Review, where she spent six years as poetry editor; The Los Angeles Review of Books; FIELD; Literary Mama; Modern Language Studies; Ninth Letter; and other journals."
Read the full story here.
Her Twitter account: Twitter
Meet Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate
Joy Harjo was appointed the U.S. poet laureate in 2019. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1951, Harjo is a member of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. She is the author of several books of poetry, including An American Sunrise (W. W. Norton, 2019), and Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings (W. W. Norton, 2015). She is a current Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
