Visible World By Richard Siken (Grade 10+)

Richard Siken is a queer poet, painter, and filmmaker. His book Crush won the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, selected by Louise Glück and was written partly as a response to the death of an early boyfriend. His portrayal of queer love siphons both the violence and transcendental secrecy whilst preserving the purity of love and the “ mystery is that there is something to keep the light from passing through.” He is cofounder and editor of the literary magazine spork and is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Complainers By Rudy Francisco (Grade 7-9)

Rudy Francisco is an established Black American poet. He has been published and presented on several notable platforms, such as Button Poetry and Write About Now Poetry. He was also the first spoken word poet to perform on The Tonight Show hosted by Jimmy Fallon. Rudy's work is characterized by a conversational yet incendiary poetic stylem which is equally matched in his verbal performances. He has written on subjects varying from racism, love, religion, and much more. His works include two full-length poetry collections, Helium and I'll Fly Away. "Complainers" is a piece characterized by a sense of tough love - in it, Rudy encourages the audience to savour and champio what they have, as tragedy can strike at any moment. In the end, he leaves us with an important message: "Remember, you are still here."

Poems in the Attic By Nikki Grimes (Grades 4-6)

A young girl discovers a box of poems in her attic that were written by her mother while growing up. Being able to read her poems and share those experiences with her mother, the young girl has never felt closer to her mother. In response to this, the author creates a book full of her own poems and copies of her mother's poems as well. This book is called "Poems in the Attic" and is written by Nikki Grimes. Nikki Grimes is an African-American author that loves writing poetry for children and young adults. In her free time, she loves photography, fibre art, and beading. She has gotten many awards that include the "2017 Children's Literature Legacy Award" and the "2006 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children". More specifically, her book "Poems in the Attic" has gotten the "Bank Street College Best Children's Books of the Year 2016".

Since Hannah Moved Away By Judith Viorst (Grades 1-3)

"Since Hannah Moved Away" is a poem where the themes of friendship and loss are explored in the perspective a children. The poem follows the feelings of a girl whose best friend, Hanna has moved away. Judith Viorst is an American writer, newpaper journalist and psychoanalysis researcher known for many of her pieces of literature. Notable works include "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" and "The Tenth Good Thing About Barney." Viorst is most famous for her children's literature and has revieced numerous awards including the New Jersey Institude of Technology Award (1969) and the Silver Pencil Award (1973).

Not Tonight but Tomorrow By Miguel Algarin (Grades 10+)

Miguel Algarín was a Puerto Rican-born poet and writer. With degrees in Literature from University of Wisconsin-Madison and Penn State University, he taught Shakespeare, creative writing, and United States ethnic literature at Rutgers University. He was a founding member of New York City’s the Nuyorican Poets Cafe – a multi-arts institution that gives voice to rising poets, actors, filmmakers, and musicians and provides support and empowerment for minority and underprivileged artists. He received four American Book Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. Written in 1978, “Not Tonight but Tomorrow”, is an exploration of the inevitability of life. He meditates on the passage of time, old age, the turning of the seasons, and global climate change.

Butterfly in a Boneyard By Jillian Christmas (Grades 7-9)

Jillian Christmas is a spoken word and anti-colonial poet from Vancouver, BC, Canada. She has won numerous literary prizes for her work. This poem, "a butterfly in a boneyard", comes from her first volume of poetry, The Gospel of Breaking, which was published in 2020; she has since produced two more works, The Magic Shell and My Sweet Baby Book.

Dear March—Come in—(1320) By Emily Dickinson (Grades 4-6)

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, but only for one year. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was actively involved in state and national politics, serving in Congress for one term. Her brother, Austin, who attended law school and became an attorney, lived next door with his wife, Susan Gilbert. Dickinson’s younger sister, Lavinia, also lived at home, and she and Austin were intellectual companions for Dickinson during her lifetime. Dickinson is thought to be bisexual, and there are many who believ she was having an affair with her brothers wife Susan. Upon her death, Dickinson’s family discovered forty handbound volumes of nearly 1,800 poems.

Gone Camping by Nikki Grimes (Grades 1-3)

Spring is a time of rain and flowers. Even in the deserts of the southwest United States, flowers grow in Spring, as you can see in this fun poem by Nikki Grimes.

Nikki Grimes was born in New York and started writing poems when she was six years old. She is also a jeweler and a photographer, and she used to live in Sweden.

Lilacs By Amy Lowell ( Grades 10+)

“God made me a business woman, and I made myself a poet.” Amy Lowell was a poet, performer, editor, and translator who devoted her life to the cause of modern poetry. Lowell was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1874, into a prominent New England family and became a flamboyant woman whose behavior belied her upbringing. S he flouted convention with her proto-feminist poetry and unabashedly public persona. Lowell continued to publish volumes of poetry throughout her life, but Legends (1921) would be the last collection of her own work published before her death. In it, she uses 11 legends from around the globe as a basis for 11 poems. This poem, "Lilacs" is said to be one of Lowell’s personal favourites.

Vancouver in the Rain By Regan D’Andrade (Grades 7-9)

Regan D’Andrade was born to an English Jewish mother and an Indian Catholic father, in East Africa. She moved a lot with her family, from Kenya to England and back again, from town to town and house to house, and from one continent to another. The constant moving and the quest for identity have been intrinsic to her life path and search for meaning. She emigrated with her family to Canada from Kenya in 1975 and lived in Calgary for six years before moving to Vancouver.
Regan D’Andrade teaches writing courses and workshops developed to help the creator connect to the natural world with minimal criticism.

Her excerpt caught my eye on one of my walks and gave me a chuckle and that is why I am sharing it with you. It is truly an observation which we, all who live in raincouver can relate to whether we have learned to enjoy the rain or are in the process of learning to do so.

Greenwild By Pari Thomson (Grades 4-6)

GREENWILD is a brilliant adventure story about Daisy Thistledown, a girl who discovers she can do green magic--magic with plants! When Daisy's mother goes missing in the Amazon rainforest, Daisy must learn to master her magic before her mother--and all magical plants--are destroyed.

Pari Thomson is an author and editor of children's books. Half Persian, half English, she has lived in many places, including India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. She now lives in London, UK, not far from beautiful Kew Gardens.

The Sharing Circle By Theresa Larsen-Jonasson (Grades 1-3)

Theresa "Corky" Larsen-Jonasson is a proud Cree/Danish Métis Elder with roots in Red Deer and Maskwacis First Nations. She lives her life according to the traditional indigenous teachings that saved her life. These teachings flow from her parents, her 93-year-old Kokom, Christine Joseph of Cochrane, aunties, uncles, as well as from the Goodstrikers, Williams and John Crier families, all of whom she loves immensely. Corky serves as a member of the National Collective of the Walking With Our Sisters missing and murdered indigenous women awareness movement and a proud member of Red Deer’s Red Feather Women. She is also a member of the Urban Aboriginal Voices Women’s Council and Red Deer Welcoming and Inclusive Communities Network.

Appalachian Elegy By Bell Hooks (Grade 10+)

When bell hooks died in 2022, she left behind an ouevre of interdisciplinary essays on race, feminism, queer identities, and love. Though most well-known for her work in non-fiction, hooks was also a poet of works such as the poem of today, "Appalachian Elegy." Similar to the sentiments of her essays, this poem carries the usual 'bell hooks' intensity of deeply intimate language, powerful emotions, and the transcendance of boundaries--whether it be grammatical, syntaxual, or those separating us from each other.

Harlem By Langston Hughes (Grades 7-9)

Langston Hughes was a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance movement, and a pioneer in the experimental form "jazz poetry". The selected poem "Harlem" both illustrate the political and economical overdue of racial justice for African Americans, and play on the traditional rhyme scheme and sound patterns of poetry.

Stoop-Sitting By Elizabeth Acevedo (Grades 4-6)

Elizabeth Acevedo is best known for her verse novel, The Poet X, featuring an young Afro-Latina poet and her life in highschool. From the book, "Stoop-sitting" describes protagonist Xiomara's anxiety of the upcoming school year during the final week of summer. Acevedo's gentle yet vivid images, of children, fire-hydrant sprinkling, of drug-dealers, quietly paints Xiomara's native Harlem, stripping it of its negative connotations and adoring it with the love of a writer's pen.

Ada Twist, Scientist By Andrea Beaty (Grades 1-3)

Ada Twist, Scientist was created by children's author Andrea Beaty as a story to inspire girls, and especially girls of colour, to pursue their interests in STEM. It received positive reviews from publications such as the School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. In 2021, Netflix released an animated series based off of the adventures of Ada Twist, which was produced by Michelle and Barack Obama's production company, Higher Grounds. The series went on to win a 2022 Annie Award and completed its run last year in its fourth and final season.

Afterimage By Audre Lorde (Grades 10+)

***Warning: This poem talks about sexual assult and the murder of Emmett Till***

A self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Lorde was born in New York City to West Indian immigrant parents. She attended Catholic schools before graduating from Hunter High School and published her first poem in Seventeen magazine while still a student there. SHe started to write poetry around the age of thrirteen. She had two children with her husband, Edwin Rollins, a white, gay man, before they divorced in 1970. Lorde later began teaching at Tougaloo. Her experiences with teaching and pedagogy—as well as her place as a Black, queer woman in white academia—went on to inform her life and work.

This poem focuses on the horrendous murder of Emmett Till. Emmett Till was a 14 year old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955. His story is very important, however it is very hard to read and learn about.

We Real Cool By Gwendolyn Brooks (Grades 7-9)

One of the most influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote on the ordinary people around her, celebrating their lives and struggles. "We Real Cool" is one such poem--employing AAVE and situations from the quotidian lives of average African American teenagers in the city, Brooks both uplifts these often hidden stories, and laments at lost possibilities for these young people due to the unspoken discriminatory economical and political conditions that surrounds this poem.

Love that Boy By Walter Dean Myers (Grades 4-6)

Growing up in West Virgia and Harlem, Walter Dean Myers experienced both the agragarian as well as the metropolitan life Black teen. However, it wasn't after reading James Baldwin's short story "Sonny's Blues" did he begin to draw from his personal history for his writing. "Love that Boy", one of Myer's best known poems, is one such poem--exhibiting the simplicity of childhood, repetition and speech patterns of those in his childhood, and the love and secure attachment of the speakers family/

The Undefeated By Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Grades 1-3)

The Undefeated is a National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book written by Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. Alexander's The Undefeated is a powerful tribute to Black Life in the United States, delving into the oppression of trauma of slavery and the preserverance of African-Americans in the Civil Rights movement and their continued fight against oppression. The Undefeated also highlights many of America's past and current black heroes, including Muhammed Ali, Wilma Rudolph, and Serena Willaims and is sprinkled with literary references to Martin Luther King Jr., Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and other black writers. Coupled with Nelson's evocative imagery highlighting the trials and tribulations of the fight for freedom and equality, The Undefeated delivers a compelling and inspiring story of black history in America.