Poetry: The New Guest at Book Club

Why add poetry to your book club’s readings?

Adding a poetry collection or anthology to your book club’s reading schedule is a great way to add variety to what you’re reading and discussing.

Poetry can explore deep emotions, giving readers lots to talk about!
Poetry explores themes and topics in new ways.
Poetry can cover a wide variety of genres - romance, fiction, non-fiction/memoir, social justice.
Poetry often “breaks the rules”, giving readers more to discuss than just content - Did the style work? Did the author “break the rules” in a way that delivered a more powerful poem?
Just like we do when viewing a painting or sculpture, poetry offers readers the chance to take their own meaning from the poem. Each interpretation adds layers to the original work.
Poetry can be written about a specific experience, memory, or feeling while having universal appeal and connecting to a variety of readers.
Poetry can be healing!
Read all or just a few of the poems in a collection.
Each poem is its own contained story in verse AND as a collection, the author has likely assembled the individual poems in a way that tells a broader, overarching story as well. Both the micro- and macro- poem-story arcs are great for discussions!
Poets often approach their writing in ways that are different from writers of prose, offering even more content to discuss among readers (character/voice, themes, dialogue, plot, structure).