The Poetry Books You MUST Read in 2026
Year in Review: My Best Poetry Reads of 2025
2025 has come to a close. This year has gifted book lovers with thousands of new releases that have kept us happily reading from January to December. But whether you’re uncovering a new favorite author or returning to those books that you’ve read time and time again, I think we can all look back fondly on the books we’ve read this year.
I’ve selected twenty-four books1, across the areas of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as the best books I’ve read in 2025. The list you’re reading right now features my favorite poetry books of 2025.
If you would like to see my other lists, you’ll find them here:
A couple of ground rules for which books are included on this list. This list includes books that I’ve read and finished this year. If I read a book I liked this year and haven’t finished it yet, then it will not be included. If the book wasn’t technically released in 2025, that does not mean that it will be excluded.
I am, however, excluding rereads from these lists. Only books that I’ve read for the first time will be mentioned here.
Because I also do monthly reviews of the books I finish on What’s On My Mind, there will be some crossover with the Fresh Off the Shelf series. To make this article more worth your while, I’ve included a number of books not featured on those lists.
I would also like to inform returning newsletter subscribers that these Best Reads articles will be replacing the December 2025 entry of Fresh Off the Shelf. The books that would’ve been featured on that entry were included in these articles.
Without further delay, here are my best poetry reads of 2025.
Poetry
Jimmy’s Blues and Other Poems by James Baldwin
“Then, perhaps they imagine
that their crimes are not crimes?Perhaps.
Perhaps that is why they cannot repent,
why there is no possibility of repentance.”2
American author James Baldwin is often admired for the punchy lyricism of his prose, but an often-overlooked section of his prolific bibliography is his poetry. Jimmy’s Blues and Other Poems assembles poems from the 1983 and 1985 publications of Jimmy’s Blues, as well as a 1989 publication titled Gypsy.
This new collected volume brings together twenty-five of Baldwin’s poetic works, making his poems accessible to a whole new generation of poetry lovers and Baldwin fans. As a Baldwin fanatic, I would be remiss to not include this book here.
Sappho: A New Translation translated by Mary Barnard
“Although they are
Only breath, words
which I command
are immortal”3
This 2019 republication of the translated works of Sappho was my first foray into reading the works of this acclaimed Greek poet. As detailed in this volume’s foreword by Dudley Fitts, the extent to which we know anything about Sappho is minimal. We know that she’s a 6th-century Greek lyrist from Lesbos, and our knowledge of her biography ends there.
The works included in this book, translated by Mary Barnard, are the fragments of what Sappho wrote centuries ago. These one-hundred fragments explore life in its simple mundanity and the joys to be found in family, friendship, and love that transcend time and place.
