10 classic & modern poetry audiobooks to give you all the feels

by Joan Baez

Many recognize Joan Baez for her songwriting, but few know she writes poetry, too. In this intimate, autobiographical collection, the legendary artist and activists shares her poetry publicly for the first time. This collection is like a personal diary as she reflects on her life, her family, her passions, revealing pivotal life experiences that shaped the icon. If you’re a fan of her music, you’ll love getting to know her as a person, read to you by the author in her own words.

by Mary Oliver

This Read with Jenna Book Club pick is from Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Mary Oliver, who you probably know from her iconic poem, “The Summer Day,” with the popular verse: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?” This definitive and enduring collection of her best work was arranged by Oliver shortly before her death in 2019. Chosen for her book club in 2024, Jenna says poetry plays a therapeutic and significant role in her life, and her love of poems was instilled in her by her grandmothers, Jenna Hawkins Welch and Barbara Bush.

“I love her work. It’s about nature and love and what it means to be human,” Jenna says.

by Maggie Smith

Known for her 2016 viral poem, “Good Bones,” Maggie Smith is back with a new collection of poetry out this March. This time, she’s examining the sometimes-blurry distinction between mind and body, and how the self shifts and moves through space and time. The title of this new collection comes from her poem that’s mesmerizing, tender, and thoughtful (and would be best enjoyed while listening to her read it): 

You ask what I'll miss about this life.
Everything but cruelty, I think.

But you want one specific thing,
so here—I'll miss my body. I'll miss

its companionship, how it's traveled
with me, never leaving me—& by me,

I mean my mind. My soul? My self?
I don't know what to call it, and besides,

my body hasn't traveled with me.
I've traveled inside it. Do I wear it

or does it carry me? Is the body a suit
or a suitcase?

by Kristie Frederick Daugherty

Music lyrics are sung poetry and so therefore, Taylor Swift is a master poet. Her lyrics are filled with Easter eggs and are clever, authentic, and elegantly written (give it a listen or just ask her millions of fans). But in this collection, poet, professor, and dedicated Swiftie Kristie Frederick-Daugherty has brought together 113 new poems, each inspired by a particular Taylor Swift song. If you’re a Swiftie or a poetry fan, you’ll love testing your knowledge of every era—from Fearless to folklore, Reputation to The Tortured Poets Department, vault tracks included—to match each poem to the song it is a response to.

by Ada Limón

From the 2024 Poet Laureate comes an astonishing collection about interconnectedness between the human and nonhuman, ancestors and ourselves. "I have always been too sensitive, a weeper / from a long line of weepers," writes Limón. "I am the hurting kind." But above all, these poems are filled with connection and delight at being in the world. 

Limón also has a new book releasing on April 7, Against Breaking, that inspires us to see poetry as much more than just words—as a powerful force for healing, a call to action, and a vibrant celebration of humanity's many voices. You can also listen to it on audiobook. 

by Bridget Bell

Bell’s debut collection is an honest portrayal of the complex realities of motherhood, including the devastating effects of postpartum depression. Current mothers, mothers-to-be, family members of people suffering from perinatal mental illnesses, OB-GYNs, nurses, and any other healthcare providers will find this collection to be both an educational tool and a powerful component of recovery. 

by Ocean Vuong

“How else do we return to ourselves but to fold
The page so it points to the good part”

This beautiful and deeply intimate collection from the critically acclaimed poet contends with Vuong’s grief over losing his mother. Vivid, brave, and propulsive, Vuong's poems are about personal loss, the meaning of family, and the value of joy in a perennially fractured American spirit.

by Jericho Brown

Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Poems of fatherhood, legacy, blackness, queerness, worship, and trauma are propelled into stunning clarity by Brown's mastery, and his invention of the duplex—a combination of the sonnet, the ghazal, and the blues—is testament to his formal skill. The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal.

by Shakespeare

Unfortunately not read by the author like some of the others above (wouldn’t that be wild?), but narrator David Butler does a wonderful job reading all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets that include timeless lines like, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" 

If you recently got swept away by Chloé Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell’s version of Hamnet, you may be itching for more from The Bard, including his poetry, which was what initially made him famous. 

by Homer

And speaking of movies, The Odyssey starring Matt Damon is hitting theaters this summer, which makes it a good time to finally read Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem, if that’s on your bucket list. This story has stood the test of time (2,700 years, in fact), and listening to this great masterpiece on audiobook is a great way to hear an updated version of the classic work.