Take it. Read it. Learn. Love.

This collection spans the history of American poetry, from classic works by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson to contemporary poems by Claudia Rankine and Natalie Diaz.

What makes this collection so special is its diversity. There are poems about all of the things that make us human: love, loss, joy, grief, hope, anger. Poems that will make you laugh and cry, think and act.

The selection of poems is carefully curated and reflects the broad spectrum of the American experience. There are poems from people of all colors, genders, and backgrounds, from all corners of the country. This diversity is not only refreshing, it's also important, because it shows us that poetry is for everyone.

I’ll be honest, I mostly skimmed. I love the idea of poetry but I haven’t enjoyed most of what I’ve read. Maybe it’s because we were forced to analyze poems in my high school English classes, who knows. Someone who loves poetry will probably love this.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. (The version I read was a finished copy.)

Thank you Netgalley for helping me find this book.

I love reading poems and the way words just rhyme (even though there is not rhyme scheme) but this book transposed me to another world.

100 Poems That Matter is, I believe, the most interesting anthology of poetry I have yet read. The collection is exciting, covers both time and space in our world culturally, while also including new styles and young poets. I began noting my favorite poets/poems but had to stop when I realized that I was writing down over two thirds of what I read. There are Rumi and Rilke, Cummings and Emily Bronte, Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou, Seamus Heaney and Ada Limon. There are many names new to me that I will pursue further.

The poems are organized into six chapters:
Poetry & the Spirit
Poetry & Grieving & the Blues
Poetry & Social Justice
Poetry & the Environment
Poetry & the Body
Poetry & Desire

I found poems to enjoy, some to love throughout the book, in all categories, some in formats I would usually avoid reading. Here, I was drawn in to experiment. And I did, often happily.

I f there were room, I would include more poets’ names but, in the end, I don’t think it matters. I wasn’t familiar with many. If you enjoy poetry or would like to give an excellent collection a try, this would be for you. Ultimately, it won’t matter if you know the poets. It’s the wonder of what they have written!

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this collection. I've been reading a lot of poetry lately, but they've mostly been books of poems by a single author and it often started to feel repetitive after a while.

This is such a wonderful variety of poems - there's truly something for everyone! I didn't necessarily connect with every poem, but I could still appreciate what each one brought to the overall experience. I especially loved the introduction, which compared poetry to music.

Highly recommend this, whether or not you're already a lover of poetry!

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Terrific collection of poems!

Range in themes, structure, tone and rhythm offer the reader an array of poetic history.

I love the perspective on poetry and reading poetry that this book shares in the introduction. Overall, as someone newer to reading and enjoying poetry I found this to be a really inspiring and cohesive collection that offered a lot. I would highly recommend this to anyone - it would especially be fantastic as a gift.

Thank you to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC - 100 Poems That Matter is out now!

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley.
This book is an excellent foray into the world of poetry and perfect for poetry newbies like myself. I particularly enjoyed the forward which delved into the exoration and enjoyment of poetry for those who may not have much experience of this world before. Not all the poems were too my taste but I did find some that I enjoyed. I'm addition to this, I came away after reading this book with a new interest in the world poetry and look forward to reading more!

This is an anthology that will help you cry and soothe you at the same time!
I’ve been subscribed to poets.org for the longest time. Not only am I a huge fan of the poems they send, but it’s amazing to be be able to go and read a poem on the site. Sometimes your heart needs a certain poem and it’s fantastic to be able to access it so quickly! When I found out that this book was being published by the same people, I knew it would be amazing and reading it only provided that assumption right!
The anthology is split into five sections, each covering an overarching theme such as grief, the body, desire, etc. It took me a few minutes to understand but when I did I fell in love with the titles of these sections! I think I was slow on the uptake because the only one I was immediately familiar with was ‘Practice Losing Further, Losing Faster.’
This review is not very objective, because as it just so happens I needed the third and the fifth poems quite badly. And while the book had quite a few that I’ve read before and loved, I was also introduced to some fantastic new ones that I’ll turn to in the future!
I should also admit that I prefer anthologies like this one over collections that are purely one poet. If you really love a poet I’m sure you’ll love an entire book comprised of just them, but anthologies such as this one are the ones that give you comfort and introduce you to those poets. To steal the music analogy from this book, sometimes an entire album by an artist might not work for you, but a song by them on the right playlist will!

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free poetry collection*

The title, "100 Poems that Matter", already describes the content. This is a poetry collection that collects poems about everything that matters in our personal lives (love, death, friendship), but also what matters beyond single people. Poems cover racism, climate change, feminism.

Of course not all poems worked for me. For some I would've liked some context, but overall enjoyable.

4 stars

Tyrants fear the poet.
from In This Place by Amanda Gorman

Poetry that matters. Of course I had to read it. Inside I found well-loved verses and new poems that left their imprint. What matters? Being alive here in this world. Justice. Love. Nature. Embracing all of life, its joys and its sorrows, our youth and our age. Freedom. Dignity. It’s all in these poems.

How should we live? The first poem, On Living by Nazim Hikmet, encourages us to “live with great seriousness,” planting a tree at seventy, embracing life, proclaiming that “we must live as if we will never die.” In Failing and Flying, Jack Gilbert offers that “anything worth doing is worth doing badly,” suggesting that “Icarus was not failing as he fell, just coming to the end of his triumph.”

Life has its grief. Yet, Philip Larkin reminds in An Arundel Tomb, “What will survive of us is love.” We call out for justice. “You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise,” Maya Angelou proclaims. In I Can’t Breathe, Pamela Sneed decries the deaths of black men. We are called to protect the Earth which offers “The Peace of Wild Things“, as Wendell Berry reminds us. Celebrate your body and its desire.

You will find poems by Emily Bronte and Elizabeth Bishop, E. E. Cummings and Emily Dickinson, Louse Gluck and Amanda Gorman, Seamus Heaney and Langton Hughes, Amy Lowell and Federico Garcia Lorca, Marianne Moore an Sharon Olds, Mary Olive and Sylvia Plath, Rainer Maria Rilke and Rumi, Sappho and Alfred Lord Tennyson, Phillis Wheatley and Walk Whitman.

Its an inspiring volume.

I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Nice collection. A few I was familiar with, most I wasn’t and I love discovering new poetry to enjoy. I liked how the collection was broken into life experiences and emotional chapters. I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

Bei dieser Gedichtsammlung handelt es sich um eine Anthologie von verschiedensten Autoren, von denen Gedichte zu unterschiedlichen Themen zusammengetragen wurden. Das Buch ist in 6 Kategorien gegliedert: Glaube, Trauer, Soziale Gerechtigkeit, Umwelt, Körper und Verlangen. Die Gedichte sind von unterschiedlicher Länge und stammen aus unterschiedlichen Zeiten und Ländern; manche wurden aus anderen Sprachen ins Englische übersetzt. Während bspw. im Abschnitt "Soziale Gerechtigkeit" viele Bezüge zur aktuellen amerikanischen Gesellschaft und Politik zu finden waren, gab es im Abschnitt "Verlangen" eine bunte Mischung von bekannten und unbekannten Autoren, deren Gedichte universell verständlich sind.

Mir hat diese Gedichtsammlung sehr gefallen, auch wenn es Abschnitte gab, die mich mehr angesprochen haben als andere. Mir gefiel die Vielseitigkeit der Themen und die Kombination aus älteren und aktuellen Werken. Insbesondere die Gedichte im Abschnitt "Soziale Gerechtigkeit" waren für mich sehr interessant und haben mir aus der Seele gesprochen. Ich vergebe daher gute 4 Sterne.

In English:

This collection of poems is an anthology by various authors, from whom poems on various topics have been collected. The book is divided into 6 categories: Spirit, Grief, Social Justice, Environment, Body and Desire. The poems are of different lengths and come from different times and countries; some have been translated into English from other languages. For example, while in the "Social Justice" section there were many references to current American society and politics, in the "Desire" section there was a colorful mixture of well-known and unknown authors whose poems are universally understandable.

I really enjoyed this collection of poems, although there were sections that spoke to me more than others. I liked the diversity of the themes and the combination of older and current works. In particular, the poems in the "Social Justice" section were very interesting to me and spoke to my soul. I therefore award a good 4 stars.

2022 was the year of poetry for me. Between Mary Oliver, Kate Baer, and Amanda Gorman, I could not get enough. 100 Poems that Matter was a great next read for me as it introduced me to a ton of different poets. I cannot stop thinking about Gwendolyn Brook's Poem "To the Young Who Want to Die" and wish it were required reading for all.

This compilation has something for everyone and has poetry both old and new. It's diverse in representation, and a great book to read a little at a time. If you're looking for a compilation to sink into slowly, I would definitely recommend this one.

: "I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

100 Poems that Matter is a wonderful collection of poetry that span many eras and subject matters. It's fascinating to read so many different touching pieces and realize that in the end human kind has changed their thoughts and feelings a whole bunch. Emotions are strong and beautiful, yet exposes one so much to the judgment of others. What if we took the time to read poetry, really read it and realize that at least one poem in this book is reflecting our own emotions and feelings back at us

This is a selection from a variety of poets divided into six themes. The introduction is very encouraging for those of us who would like to enjoy poetry but struggle to connect with it. Because of this preamble, I thought there'd be some commentary to go along with the poems or at least with each section, but there's not. Regardless, it's a good first impression of several famous poets and some I'd never heard of.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

With all poetry anthologies, there are some inherent problems. Firstly, it is impossible to pick poems to please everyone. Secondly, it’s ridiculously impossible to narrow any topic or compilation from the millions of wonderful possibilities to a hundred or so. This book was a victim of these challenges like all other anthologies, but it actually fared better than most that I’ve read lately.

The poems are divided into six sections of topics like grief, the environment and desire. They are both modern and classic. Many are translated from other languages and the original text is often included.

I tend to find maybe 3 new poems I love in an average modern anthology. In this one I found a few more than usual, though there were still plenty that just didn’t do much for me. It really couldn’t be any different. What a terrible collection it would be if every poem was exactly my taste. And while plenty weren’t for me, I could see why most of them were chosen.

Of course it’s going to be like rolling a giant thousand side die choosing who and what to include in a collection with a title like this. Not a single one of my favorite poems or poets is in this little book, but I would say that they do matter. It was a great read.

I read a temporary, self destroying ARC of this book via NetGalley.

Unfortunately I couldn't download this to my kindle to read. Its a bit hard to read on the netgalley app- i look forward to purchasing this when its published in Dec 2022.

100 POEMS THAT MATTER
BY: THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS

This compilation of poetry is excellent and it has some of my favorite poets contained within this excellent resource. Some of the themes explored within this are love, loss and nature. I enjoyed this immensely, but I didn't care for discovering it is delivered via PDF format instead of reading them on my Kindle. I will return to these poems again and again, but will purchase my copy when it reaches publication to really enjoy them more. Recommended!

Publication Date 12-13-2022

Thank you to Net Galley, The Academy of American Poets and Andrews McMeet Publishing for providing me with my PDF in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#100PoemsThatMatter #TheAcademyofAmericanPoets #AndrewsMcMeetPublishing #NetGalley

I am relatively new to enjoying poetry but this book had such variety.

Firstly, the foreword was beautiful and passionate and really stirs up your enthusiasm with the theme of "there's something for everyone'.

There were about 10 of the 100 poems I felt such strong feelings for, a few of which I will remember forever.

There are many different styles of poetry such as "erasure" (which I love!) and physical poems, compared to some with rigid rules and typical rhyming couplets.

Let it be noted I speak (or rather read) Spanish, and though only a handful of poems were in Spanish, and the majority had translations, this might be intimidating to some.

Overall I loved it. And the art on the pages also added to the appeal!