Poems to Read is an Anthology edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz, the folks who gave us the Favorite Poem Project.  It is one of my go-to readers of poetry for three reasons:

• I like everything Pinsky touches.
• The poems are often introduced with short comments by those who suggested them, providing welcome guidance to understanding and interpretation.
• The 7 chapters are loosely sorted by topic, some 30 or so poems each, allowing us to pick something relevant for the mood you’re in or the thing you’re thinking about.

This gives you the idea:

Chapter 1: There was a child went forth

Chapter 2: Either whom to love or how

Chapter 3: The forgetful kingdom of death

Chapter 4: In durance soundly caged

Chapter 5: Curled around these images

Chapter 6: Alive with many separate meanings

Chapter 7: I made my song a coat

I’ll be surprised if one of these did not draw your immediate curiosity.

And if you have avoided poetry for one reason or another, here is a primer of why you should give it (another) a try:

https://press.princeton.edu/titles/7329.html  

It is a small volume in which the former Poet Laureate argues that poetry is an inescapably democratic art form.

I grabbed a reading of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens for your pleasure.  I created montages for each stanza of this favorite poem, with a marble standing in for the bird, exhibited at Blackfish Gallery some years back. Images displayed here in the order of the stanzas.