Poetry Resources for beginners

We asked a number of poets, including previous Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets, to list a few poetry books that they would recommend to others. The selections that came in include influential volumes, books returned to over and over, must-reads, and books frequently recommended to students or new poetry readers.

Ai recommended:

Galway Kinnell
Body Rags (2002, Mariner Books Reissue)

Galway Kinnell
The Book of Nightmares (1973, Mariner Books)

W. S. Merwin
The Lice (1993, Copper Canyon Press Reissue)

Cesare Pavese
Hard Labor (1979, Johns Hopkins University Press)

James Wright
Shall We Gather at the River (1968, University Press of New England)

Sylvia Plath
Ariel (2004, HarperCollins Restored Edition)

Allen Ginsberg
Howl (1956, City Lights Books)

Robert Bly recommends:

Wallace Stevens
Harmonium (1923, Faber and Faber)

Antonio Machado
Soledad (1990, Fondo de Cultura Económica)

Antonio Machado
Times Alone (1983, Wesleyan University Press)

Richard Wilbur
The Beautiful Changes (1947, Reynal & Hitchcock)

Robert Creeley
For Love (1980, Macmillan)

Cesar Vallejo
The Black Messengers (1995, Losada)