Best Poems of 2025

When I read a book of poems I keep a stack of placemarks handy. When a poem strikes me in the particular way that makes me want to return to it, I tuck in a placemark. If the poem continues to cling to me, I make it official. I hand copy the poem into a loose leaf binder. These are the poems I copied out in 2025.

John Grey ….. Danielle

Candace Pearson ….. My Brother Is Busy

Walt Whitman ….. “4. These I, singing in spring …” from Calamus (1860)

Walt Whitman ….. “11. When I heard at the close of day …” from Calamus (1860)

Walt Whitman ….. “23. This moment as I sit alone, yearning …” from Calamus (1860)

Walt Whitman ….. “29. One flitting glimipse …” from Calamus (1860)

Walt Whitman ….. “32. What think you I take my pen …” from Calamus (1860)

Walt Whitman ….. “43. O you whom I often and silently …” from Calamus (1860)

Walt Whitman ….. “45. 1. Full of life, sweet-blooded …” from Calamus (1860)

Walt Whitman ….. Behold This Swarthy Face

Walt Whitman ….. A March in the Ranks, Hard-Prest …

Walt Whitman ….. There Was a Child Went Forth

Walt Whitman ….. Thought

Al Young ….. The Dancer

Mariano Zaro ….. Red Swimsuits

Best Poems of 2024

I write poetry. I read a lot of poetry, too. If you glanced over yesterday’s post, the list of titles read last year, you saw many poetry titles, maybe even a poet or two you’ve heard of. I finished a collection by Walt Whitman, for instance. I plucked it from Kent’s bookshelf and started reading it in 2023. I read slowly and I read several books at once, so it often takes me a long time to get to the end of a heavier book. No Whitman poems appear in the list I am posting today — not because I have chosen against declaring any of them “best.” Rather, I haven’t spent enough time with individual poems yet. Likely some will show up among the 2025 “Best Poems.” We’ll see. In any case, that’s my method. When reading a book of poems I keep handy a stack of placemarks. If I want to reread a poem, I slide in a placemark. I come back to the poem, read it again and again. If I decide it’s something I don’t want to leave behind I hand copy it and save it in a three-ring binder. I have tried to figure out what my criteria are, without much success. I like sounds. I like transformations. I like double meanings. I like humor. I like surprise. I dislike poem-as-wisdom. Given the same sources, a different reader would choose different favorites. A “best” list by you, would not be mine. 

Tim Długos   …..   Incredible Risks

Tim Dlugos   …..   Nerves

Tim Dlugos   …..   To Clear Things Up, Scott

Tim Dlugos   …..   Wall Street Sauna

Federico Garcia Lorca   …..   Landscape of the Vomiting Multitude

Hsin Ch’i-chu   …..   En Route to Po-shan

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz   …..   Divine Laura, my life was always yours

Jacqueline Kudler   …..   January 2007

Lu Chi   …..   from Rhymeprose on Literature 

Oktay Rifat   …..   In the Street

Best Poems of 2023

These are the poems, the best poems, the poems that made reading the lesser poems worthwhile because I knew I would find poems that were this good if I just kept looking, but, really, reading the other poems was okay even so, there being poems among them that were quite enjoyable and even the ones that I left behind after that quick read usually did things that I go to poetry for, that is, weird stuff or a heightened sense that what was being said was more than just a message but an incantation of sorts, a calling forth of powers beyond the denotative, a scrawling on the wall of a door that, once you push on it, gives into a room or a world or a limitless void, a place wholly new, or familiar and not, the fragrance of it stuck in my nose, a hunger meeting the hungers I failed to fully stuff up with bonbons and bon mots and bonfires, hunger to hunger hanging over the swamp, a miasma as pretty as a pail of pickles at the end of the rainbow freeze-dried and shellacked to the skin of a tuba. 

James Cagney ….. Between a Rock Wall and an Immigrant

Katerina Canyon ….. I Left Out ‘Bells and Whistles’

Michael Koch ….. Color Of

Michael Koch ….. Tempus Fugit, Part Two

Jeanne Lupton ….. tanka: “new house”

Rebecca Radner ….. I dreamed my daughter

Rebecca Radner ….. I thought I’d lost my keys

Rebecca Radner ….. My old friend Ferenc

Kelly Shaw ….. haiku: “at the county fair”

Orhan Veli Kanik ….. For You

Orhan Veli Kanik ….. Mahmut the dreamweaver

Julia Vinograd ….. An Extra Thanksgiving with a Friend

Julia Vinograd ….. Poem (homage to the surrealists)

Julia Vinograd ….. Remembrance of Things Present

**

When I read a book of poems, I keep handy a small stack of placemarks. Should I read a poem I want to revisit, I tuck a placemark in next to it. Before leaving the book I go back to the marked poems and reread them. Often that’s it — I take out the placemark and move on. But those poems I’m not ready to let go I read a few more times over the course of days or weeks. If I decide it’s a poem I will want to read again and again as the years go by I copy it out by hand and add it to a three-ring binder. At the beginning of every year I read aloud the poems I copied out the previous year. And, of course, any time during the course of my days I can pull a binder from the shelf and reenter poems that worked for me — and rarely do they not work all over again. 

Best Poems of 2022

Sherwin Bitsui   …..   “Coyote howls canyons into windows …”

Sherwin Bitsui   …..   “The vowels of the starved”

Yosu Buson   …..   three haiku

Kaga no Chiyo (Chiyo-ni)   …..   three haiku

Lydia Davis   …..   Bloomington

Kobayashi Issa   …..   five haiku

Kajetan Kovic   …..   Black Prayer

Jeanne Lupton   …..   four tanka

Jeanne Lupton   …..   four tanka from Numbered Breaths

Jeanne Lupton   …..   three more tanka

Michael Martin   …..   My  Bobcat Skid-Steer Loader Is My Therapy

Meeraji   …..   Call of the Sea

Brane Mozetic   …..   “I fell into a depressing reverie …”

Sheila E. Murphy   …..   “Least amount of air along the walk”

Sheila E. Murphy   …..   “I’m writing this to fathom pleasure”

Milorad Pavic   …..   Seventh Song from Holy Mass for Relja Krilatica

Susan Polizotto   …..   haiku: “She isn’t seeking”

Sandi Pray   …..   haiku: “River clean-up”

Hattori Ransetsu   …..   haiku: “one blossom of plum”

Minal Sarosh   …..   haiku: “Frying kebabs”

Antoinette Scudder   …..   Tea Making

Senryu by anonymous poets   …..   eight sentry

Kelly Shaw   …..   haiku: “Trickling roof leak”

Shiki   …..   three haiku

Masaoka Shiki   ….. haiku: “poppies bloom”

Kim Shuck   …..   The Overseers of Complexity

Dubravko Skurla   …..   Two Shores

Milivoj Slavicek   …..   Once More We Talked a Long Time I and the River

Clark Strand   …..   haiku: “The bathtub spider”

Dietmer Tauchner   …..   haiku: “thaw”

Peter Tchouhov   …..   haiku: “candlelit church”

Paul Violi   …..   Melodrama

Yokoi Yayu   …..   two haiku

*****

I started my own personal anthology of other people’s poems back in 1989. I wanted a source of poems I really loved. When I come across a poem that strikes me just right I tuck a placemark in next to it. I go back to that poem and reread it and reread it. Usually I’ve read a poem five or more times before I decide I can’t leave it behind and have to go to the hassle of copying it out by hand. 

On the first day of the year I read aloud all the poems I collected in the previous year. Yes, I read them aloud to myself. 

If you are curious about previous years, follow the “Best Poems of the Year” link. 

Best Poems of 2021

Maw Shein Win …. Water Space (one)

Owl Woman …. How shall I begin my song?

Roberta Hill …. Dream of Rebirth

Richard Littlebear …. We Are the Spirits of These Bones

Natalie Diaz …. When My Brother Was an Aztec

James Cagney …. my dr says

Dan O. …. Half Moon

Robert Hass …. John Muir, a Dream, a Waterfall …

Bruce Bond …. Bells

***

Only nine poems. That is fewer than usual. Yesterday I posted the titles of books and magazines I read in 2021, so you can scan down it if you want to get an idea of where I encountered the poems. I do read poems online, but none ended up in my personal anthology. 

The Best Poems of 2020

Ever Blue … Joseph Salvatore Aversano

Roberta Beary … haiku “on my finger”

Kari Davidson … haiku “evening sunlight”

Eli S. Evans … The Liberation of Spirit

Gilles Fabre … two haiku “let me pick you off” and “in the old iron pot”

Allen Ginsberg … haiku “a dandelion seed floats”

Michael Gizzi … “A tea shower eavesdrops on a treefort …”

Ty Hadman … haiku “knothole”

Doris Heitmeyer … haiku “the sound of night rain”

Anita Krumins … haiku “methodical husband”

D. H. Lawrence … All Souls

Hsieh Ling-yun … Overnight at Stone Gate

Ippyo … haiku “what cools us are red lanterns”

Ivan I. Ivancan … haiku “stars”

Michael McNierney … haiku “after therapy”

M. M. Nichols … haiku “walking downhill”

Natalia L. Rudychev … two haiku “the world” and “losing my shadow in his”

Masaya Saito … haiku “breaking off an icicle”

Mongane Wally Serote … Introit

Helen L. Shaffer … haiku “new blanket”

Shi-wu Ch’ing-Kung (Stonehouse) … Mountain Poem #67 “lunch in my mountain kitchen”

W. D. Snodgrass … Looking

Stefan Theodoru … haiku “sparrow on the wing”

Lequita Vance … haiku “alone on the road”

Wang An-shih … Events on Chungshan

Joyce E. Young … How Will You Step Forward?

*

As I read a book I keep a batch of placemarks ready should I come across something I want to revisit. After I’ve marked a poem and come back to read it again, I sometimes read it again and again, usually over the course of several days. If I decide I don’t want to leave it behind, I hand copy it into a loose leaf notebook. I’ve been doing this since 1989. Some years I copy out many poems; some years only a handful. 

With the new year I read aloud (usually just to myself) the poems I’ve copied out in the previous year. Then I type up the list and post it on the blog.

Are these the “best” poems I read all year? I only make that claim because it’s fun to. It’s a bigger claim than “personal favorite.” Any editor who claims their choices are the “best” of what they had offered to them isn’t telling the truth. The more candid ones will say they publish What They Like. 

So these are What I Like, or What I Liked the Most in 2020. I read a lot of poetry — and I do like a lot of it. The many poems I liked but which didn’t make it into my notebook were poems I managed to talk myself out of copying out. That doesn’t make them worse. Just so you know. 

Best Poems of 2019

Basho … two haiku

Boncho … one haiku (“the brushwood”)

Linnea Brett … bird avenue

Buson … seven haiku

Chippewa song … Sometimes I Go About Pitying Myself

Sheila Dong … Prayer

Giles Goodland … Bees

Katharine Harer … Death Over Breakfast

Christopher Jon Heuer … The Hands of My Father

Jackleen Holton Hookway … Luxury

Hokushi … haiku (“I kept hanging the moon”)

Issa … three haiku

Joso … haiku (“above the noise”)

Julie Larios … What Bee Did

Dorianne Laux … The Lost

Michelangelo Buonarroti … 90. Sonnet; possibly for Tammaso

Jim Murdoch … Shadow Writing

Otsuji … haiku (“the spring rain”)

Roka … haiku (“the water-fowl swims”)

Ryokan … haiku (“the burglar”)

Shiki … three haiku

Michael Dylan Welch & Tanya McDonald … Between Night Hills (a haiku sequence)

**

I have a loose leaf notebook into which I copy out poems. The above were the poems I copied out in 2019.

Best Poems of 2018

Brad Bennett …… haiku “rain clouds”

Natalie Diaz …… Other Small Thundering

Peter Duppenthaler …… haiku “falling leaves”

Paul Eluard …… The Evil

Bruce H. Feingold …… haiku “better than”

Tess Gallagher …… Crepes Flambeau

David Gershator …… haiku “after the break-in”

Angel Gonzalez …… I Look at My Hand

Jonathan Hayes …… Backyard

Jonathan Hayes …… “Watching the white cat watch …”

Christopher Herold …… haiku “trail dust”

Owen Hill …… from The Selected Poems of George Saunders: “every now and then …”

Sy Hoahwah …… Before We Are Eaten

Marc Elihu Hofstadter …… Rain

Joann Klontz …… haiku “dim light”

Rutger Kopland …… Bay

Rutger Kopland …… Time

Jessica Malone Latham …… haiku “loneliness”

Hart L’Ecuyer …… In the Absence of a Boyfriend

Layli Long Soldier …… Obligations 1

paul m. …… haiku “below the falls”

Pierre Martory …… Prose de Buttes-Chaumont

Cole Mitchell …… haiku “our parrot shrieks”

Henrik Nordbrandt …… Evening Sun

James Schuyler …… Thursday

Anis Shivani …… from Soraya: 30. “Akhenaton, uninvited wedding guest”

Norma Smith …… How the Light Changes

Norma Smith …… Lunch Date

Peter Tchoulhov …… haiku “drought”

James G. Tipton …… Jettisoned

Julia Vinograd …… Anniversary Party at People’s Park

Julia Vinograd …… Justice at the Courthouse

Julia Vinograd …… Old Blues

Paul O. Williams …… haiku “gone from the woods”

Paul O. Williams ……. haiku “whatever comes down”

Maw Shein Win …… Ruins of a Glittering Palace

** There are poems I don’t want to leave behind after I read them. All the poems in the list were poems I read and reread until I decided I had to have them available to read again. I hand copy each poem and add it to a loose leaf binder. 

The poems were found in anthologies, collections by individual poets, magazines and online. I know a few of the poets personally, and that always makes me happy. 

I read many poems that I like and admire that I do not copy out. These “best poems” are personal choices, poems that work on me. Every person doing a list like this would have a different list, even using the same sources. 

Early in a new year I read aloud, usually to myself, all the poems I have copied out in the previous year. Some years it takes a while. My voice this year was rough with a cold. But it feels good to put the words into the air. I love these poems! 

Thanks, poets!

Best Poems of 2017

Ernest J. Berry …… haiku “impressive name”

Blaise Cendrars …… The Formosa: Life

Bernard Eibond …… haiku “frog pond”

Carolyn Hall …… haiku “enough blossoms”

Yvonne Hardenbrook …… haiku “solstice afternoon”

Duriel E. Harris …… Self Portrait at the Millennium

Paul Hoover …… God’s Promises

Gary Hotham …… haiku “fog”

Takuboku Ishikawa …… “That story of an affair”

Byron Jackson …… haiku “everywhere”

Major Jackson …… Narcissus

Ling Ju Jung …… Night Reverie

James Longenbach …… Snow

Nikola Nilic …… haiku “moonlight”

Linda Noel …… Time Frame

H. F. Noyes …… haiku “subway posters”

W. F. Owen …… haiku “in the park”

Ron Padgett …… Album

Ron Padgett …… Alone and Not Alone

Ron Padgett …… The Ems Dispatch

Ron Padgett …… Nunc

Ron Padgett …… Postcards

Ron Padgett …… Tom and Jerry Graduate from High School

Carl Patrick …… haiku “fireflies”

Po Chu-I …… Aboard a Boat, Reading Yuan Ninth’s Poems

Po Chu-I …… Night on the West River

Jeffrey Rabkin …… haiku “after coming in”

Rachel Richardson …… The Horses

David Rollins …… haiku “this long journey”

John Sheirer …… haiku “talking in her sleep”

Doug Sherman …… haiku “long meeting”

Sun Yun Feng …… Riding at Daybreak

Anna Tambour …… haiku “preoccupied”

Rick Tarquinio …… haiku “winter night”

Wang An Shih …… The Plum Tree

Wang Chih-Huan …… Climbing White Stork Tower

Wei Ying-Wu …… Chuchou’s West Stream

**

If this is your first visit to Dare I Read, welcome. If you’ve been here a few times you already know about my “Best Poems” lists. Today’s list consists of the poems I read in 2017 and decided I could not leave behind. As I read I keep handy a stack of placemarks. If I read a poem I want to read again, I pop in a placemark. I revisit the poem until it wears out for me, or until I decide I have to keep it. In the latter case I hand copy the poem into a looseleaf notebook.

The haiku comes primarily from anthologies published by Red Moon Press. I worked my way through what I could find in libraries. 

I’ve enjoyed Ron Padgett’s poems as I’ve encountered them here and there. This year I took on his books in chronological order. I was surprised to find that the copies held by the Berkeley Public Library were often checked out. There were even holds queues. For poetry! People waiting in line for poetry! It wasn’t until we caught up with Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson on DVD that I clued in on what was driving the popularity. The movie’s poet protagonist writes poems that are written by Ron Padgett. So there were some new interviews with Padgett based on his contributions to the film, which I also read. Ron Padgett’s Collected Poems also is freshly out. It’s big and thick. I got to it after I read the slim volumes, so I would only have to heft it to read poems I otherwise couldn’t find. In one of the interviews Padgett says when he met Adam Driver, the Paterson actor, Driver told Padgett he’d read the big Collected all the way through. Padgett seems to have been tempted to respond, “You didn’t have to do that.”