Poetry Collections That Have Defined Me This Decade
Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash
BY: LATONYA PENNINGTON
When some people started to list their favorite things of the past decade, I started to think about my growth as a poet and the poetry collections that I've read that has influenced me. While not all the poetry that inspires me has been by a Black person, a good chunk of them have. Without them, my poetry would be lifeless. These are the poetry collections that have defined me this decade.
*****
In Montgomery and Other Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks
One day in one of my English community college courses, we read a poem called "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. I loved the poem so much that I ended up going to the campus library and looking up more of her work. I ended up checking out this book and being obsessed with it for a while.
This collection showed me the power of a Black woman who decided to speak up about issues that were affecting her and the Black community through wit and honesty. It planted a seed that would eventually lead me to finding my own voice as a poet.
*****
Life On Mars by Tracy K. Smith
Somewhere between reading Tracy K. Smith's poem, "My God, It's Full of Stars" on a poetry website and finding out that she would be poet laureate in 2017, I made the decision to read the book Life On Mars. This collection opened my eyes to how imaginative poetry could be through the influence of sci-fi and pop culture. It served as my introduction to speculative poetry, adding much needed life to my own verse and poetry taste.
*****
Mannish Tongues by jayy dodd
In 2017, I had been struggling to define and express my queer identities. I had been out to myself and some close family members for a couple of years, but I didn't have many words for my queerness beyond terms like "non-binary" and "queer". Then, an article on the website Book Riot led me to jayy dodd's essay, "Gender Non- Conformity As Peak Blackness". My mind was blown by the vivid, sprawling declaration of gender; it felt like I was reading a prose poem.
I ended up buying their poetry collection Mannish Tongues right away. As I read each poem, I felt the uncertainty over my own identity ease a bit. I still didn't have the words to express myself yet, but Mannish Tongues told me that it was possible to find them. They were the first contemporary Black queer poet I read and their words were a beacon of hope.
*****
Nepantla: An Anthology of Queer Poets of Color edited by Christopher Soto
By 2019, I knew queer poets of color from history and the present day. Yet, I was still unsure where I fit as a poet because the past and present felt disconnected due to anti-queer erasure and my personal insecurities as a poet. Featuring queer poets of color from the past and present, this anthology gave me so much life. It gave me the sense that my words could be a part of something big and affirming, no matter what I wrote about.
*****
Latonya Pennington is a prolific freelance pop culture critic and poet. They’ve written articles for places such as Gamercraft, Brian Mills Press, and Comics MNT. Their poetry has been published at The Asexual Journal, Color Bloq, and Fiyah Lit Magazine among others. You can follow them on Twitter @TonyaWithAPen. Contributing to their art and writing is easy (and encouraged) through Ko-Fi.
