For people who grew up repressed, it can be difficult to allow feelings to come to the surface and be felt. More than that, it can be hard to identify feelings beyond the binary good and bad. This is probably the sole reason there are dedicated sad song playlists on YouTube and poetry books exist.
The following is a collection of Poetry by women to empower you to venture out to the depths that feel too threatening, and thrive.
Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately by Alicia Cook
Structured like an old-school mix-tape, Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately is Alicia Cook’s lyric message to anyone who has dealt with addiction. “Side A” touches on all aspects of the human condition: life, death, love, trauma, and growth. “Side B” contains haunting black-out remixes of those poems.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity.
The book is divided into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.
You’ll Come Back To Yourself by Michaela Angemeer
You’ll Come Back to Yourself explores themes of lost love, infidelity, depression, body image, and ultimately the power women have in learning to choose themselves. Separated into three sections: Holding On, Ouroboros, and Letting Go, this collection is a cyclical expedition of self discovery.
Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire
With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. In Shire’s hands, lives spring into fullness.
This is noisy life, full of music and weeping and surahs and sirens and birds. This is fragrant life, full of blood and perfume and shisha smoke and jasmine and incense. This is polychrome life, full of henna and moonlight and lipstick and turmeric and kohl. The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets, this book is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of resilience and survival. Each reader will come away changed.
The Chaos of Longing by K.Y Robinson
Organized in four sections – Inception, Longing, Chaos, and Epiphany – K.Y. Robinson’s debut poetry collection explores what it is to want in spite of trauma, shame, injustice, and mental illness. It is a love letter “to those who lie awake burning.”
September Love by Lang Leav
September Love captures the magic of each passing season, a pearl of wisdom waiting to be discovered with every page turned. Change the way you think about love, relationships, heartbreak, and self-empowerment. Breaking the rules, challenging perceptions, and exploring the secret desires we keep hidden from the world.
Yesterday I Was The Moon by Noor Unnahar
yesterday i was the moon centers around themes of love and emotional loss, the catharsis of creating art, and the struggle to find one’s voice. Noor’s poetry ranges from succinct universal truths to flowery prose exploring her heritage, what it means to find a physical and emotional home, and the intimate and painful dance of self-discovery.
The Princess Saves Herself In This One by Amanda Lovelace
From Amanda Lovelace, a poetry collection in four parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, and you. The first three sections piece together the life of the author while the final section serves as a note to the reader. This moving book explores love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, and inspiration.
the princess saves herself in this one is the first book in the “women are some kind of magic” series.
Empty Bottles Full of Stories by r.h. Sin
What are you hiding behind your smile? If those empty bottles that line the walls of your room could speak, what tales would they spill? So much of your truth is buried beneath the lies you tell yourself. There’s a need to scream to the moon; there’s this urge to go out into the darkness of the night to purge. There are so many stories living inside your soul, you just want the opportunity to tell them. And when you can’t find the will to express what lives within your heart, these words will give you peace. These words will set you free.
I Hope You Stay by Courtney Peppernell
Just as moving and endearing as Peppernell’s previous books, I Hope You Stay is a reminder of the resilience and hope needed after heartache and pain. The book is divided into five sections, with poems ranging from free verse to short form. These words are a light in the deepest hours of the night: Hold on. The sun is coming.
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