Poetry TBR

What poetry books are on your to-be-read pile(s)?

I'm got Nick Lantz's We Don't Know We Don't Know, Lucky Fish by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and Rookery by Traci Brimhall at the top of my list right now.

Plus, there's my stack of bought-at-AWP-but-haven't-gotten-to-yet, which still includes Brother Salvage by Rick Hilles, Asylum by Quan Barry, and After Greece by Christopher Bakken. This group's discussions have inspired me to look into R.S. Thomas, and I'd like to read more by Reginald Shepherd (Otherhood is all I've read).

I have The Complete Poetry of Cesar Vallejo: a Bilingual Edition. My former Professor would like me to read it but it's such a tome that I feel too daunted to even get past the dust jacket; and, though I don't have a copy yet, I'm longing to read Staying Alive.

I enjoy Vallejo, although I have to admit to preferring by-and-large the translations by Michael Smith & Valentino Gianuzzi over those of Clayton Eschleman. (caveat: I don't speak/read Spanish.) My favorite Vallejo is probably his first book, The Black Heralds -- the poems tend to be shorter, more romantic, a bit less bleak -- though there's lots to appreciate across his work.

I often find I prefer a poet's early work ... this is certainly the case for me with Auduen ... Yeats (might?) be an exception.

Dear hmajor
Thanks. I will try to read The Black Heralds. By the way, I don't speak Spanish either, though I wish I could.

Maybe poets' first books tend to be better because they have to work so hard to get their first book published. I think it's similar to musicians getting their first albums released.