When I say “poetry,” what comes to your mind? Red roses and blue violets? Old English script? Falling asleep in English class? While poems can often be painted as dusty and superfluous, modern poetry is anything but.

I found poetry like I suspect many might, not through the musings of Robert Frost, but through the subtleties of Smashing Pumpkin song lyrics. Pouring over lyrics in the late 90s, I dissected the meaning behind every line, carefully choosing just the right one for my AIM away message that was AlWaYs WrItTeN lIkE tHiS. Like a mood ring, those lyrics could somehow express my teenage feelings, crafting sentiment into well-chosen words.

Graduating from song lyrics, I later discovered more under-the-radar writers who could say volumes in a single line—each word handpicked to perfection. Poetry is so beautifully brief; there’s no rambling for pages, but somehow, everything is said. Even the white space speaks.

Here are some of the most powerful, funny, inspiring, or moving lines written by modern-day poets. Whether you’re new to poetry or a longtime lover of verse, let these lines intrigue you, then borrow and read the full collection on the Libby reading app. Also highly recommend checking out the audiobook versions for the full impact of these beautiful lines.

Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón

"Isn't it funny? How the cold numbs everything
but grief.
If we could light up the room with pain,
we'd be such a
glorious fire."

American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes
🎧 Audiobook

"It’s not the bad people who are brave I fear, it’s the good people who are afraid."

House of Light by Mary Oliver

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"

Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
🎧 Audiobook

"They say the earth spins and that’s why we fall but everyone knows it’s the music."

Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
🎧 Audiobook

"For there is always light,
If only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it."

And Yet: Poems by Kate Baer
🎧 Audiobook

"Headstone suggestions
Loved and beloved.
Gone but not forgotten.
Honestly just a really good time."

Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans
🎧 Audiobook

“I know grace and mercy was raised
by the same single mother.”

Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz

"Maybe death is a way to clean the self, of the body,
to finally celebrate it. A celebration should leave a mess."

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
🎧 Audiobook

"Fight until you can’t breathe, & if you have to forfeit, you forfeit smiling, make them think you let them win."

Musical Tables by Billy Collins

“3 A.M.
Only my hand
is asleep,
but it’s a start.”

Goldenrod by Maggie Smith
🎧 Audiobook

“We say ‘in the grand scheme of things’ as if there were one. We say
‘that’s not how the world works’ as if the world works.”

Homie by Danez Smith
🎧 Audiobook

“I miss them. all the dead. how young. how silly/to miss what you will
become. I apologize.”

Balladz by Sharon Olds
🎧 Audiobook

“Maybe this has been
death all along! Maybe life is a
kind of dying. Maybe this has been heaven.”

There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker

“You are beautiful because you’re funny. You are alive because you’re a
question.”

The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
🎧 Audiobook

"What is stronger than the human heart
which shatters over and over
and still lives?"

The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace
🎧 Audiobook

“sticks & stones never broke my bones, but words made me starve
myself until you could see all of them.”

Hold Your Own by Kate Tempest

"Taking things for granted is a terrible disease. We should all be checking ourselves regularly for signs of it."

yesterday i was the moon by Noor Unnahar

"Nothing teaches better than this trio
the fears, the tears, the years."

Some Ether by Nick Flynn

“Maybe the silence you move through
shaped me, the way
a church bell ringing resonates
long after the ear ceases to perceive it,
the way waves space themselves
until they stop.”

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
🎧 Audiobook

"Just remember, when you're walking in the nighttime, make sure the nighttime ain't walking into you."

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
🎧 Audiobook

"The world is wrong. You can’t put the past behind you. It’s buried in you; it’s turned your flesh into its own cupboard. Not everything remembered is useful but it all comes from the world to be stored in you."

The Monster Loves His Labyrinth by Charles Simic

"History is a cookbook. The tyrants are chefs. The philosophers write menus. The priests are waiters. The military men are bouncers. The singing you hear is the poets washing dishes in the kitchen."

What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer
🎧 Audiobook

“Experience will teach you two things: you are the mother, and it’s okay to let them go up the slide.”

The Endarkenment by Jeffrey McDaniel

“I know the glass is half full, but it's a shot glass, and there are four of
us, and we're all very thirsty. I know it's easy not to cry over spilled milk
when you've got another carton in the fridge.”

*Title availability may vary.

Roses are red, violets are blue, read these on Libby, and listen to them too.

RELATED READ: 7 inspiring, thought-provoking & whimsical collections for National Poetry Month