April is National Poetry Month, so Mary and Rachel discuss a wide variety of poems written by poets from all walks of life.

Check out what we talked about:

"Beautiful Chaos: On Motherhood, Finding Yourself and Overwhelming Love" by Jessica Urlichs with readalike "Paper Flowers: Poetry on the Mother Wound" by Jessica Jocelyn. "Dream Boogie: Variation" by Langston Hughes with readalike "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks. "Night Sky with Exit Wounds" and "On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong with readalikes "Bright Dead Things" by Ada Limón and "Crank" by Ellen Hopkins. "The Divine Comedy" including "Inferno," "Purgatory," and "Paradise" by Dante Alighieri with readalike "Paradise Lost" by John Milton. "Portrait of a Dog as an Older Guy" from "Cossacks and Bandits" by Katia Kapovich and "There are Birds Here" from "The Big Book of Exit Strategies" by Jamaal May. "In Memoriam A. H. H." by Alfred Lord Tennyson with readalike "Anacreon’s Grave" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Submit an original work of your own to the annual OCPL Poetry Contest and/or register for our Poetry Open Mic Night on May 29, 2026: oakcreeklibrary.org/events

To access complete transcripts for all episodes of Not Your Mother's Library, please visit: oakcreeklibrary.org/podcast

Check out books, movies, and other materials through the Milwaukee County Federated Library System:

countycat.mcfls.org

wplc.overdrive.com

oakcreeklibrary.org