5 Poetry Must Reads for Summer 2025

As spring’s rain clouds begin to clear and the sun makes its long-awaited return, there’s nothing I enjoy more than soaking up the warmth with a good book in hand. With its mix of lively late nights and slow, easy mornings, summer carries a rhythm that feels made for poetry. There’s something about the season—the stillness, the spontaneity, the space to breathe—that makes poetry hit just right.

Here’s a list of my favorite poetry collections that capture everything I love about summer:

Each of these books offers something a little different, so whether you're looking to sink into your feelings, escape into language, or simply savor a few quiet moments between plans, these poems are made for summer reading. Let them find you where you are, whether it's beachside, bedside, or somewhere in between.

1. Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans 

There’s something deeply nostalgic about the way Jasmine Mans pours her heart onto the page in this collection. It’s no surprise Black Girl, Call Home has earned the recognition it has—Mans doesn’t just write poetry; she builds worlds. Through vivid imagery and an unapologetic voice, she recreates entire neighborhoods, drawing you into her memories until they start to feel like your own.

This collection reads like a teenage summer of self-discovery and self-actualization—a coming-of-age story told through verse. Mans' down-to-earth, round-the-way-girl syntax and colorful, intimate details make this a perfect companion for a beach day or a sun-soaked afternoon by the pool. It’s poetry that invites you in, lets you sit a while, and reminds you what it means to grow into yourself.

2. Vulnerable AF by Tarriona "Tank" Ball 

Tarriona Ball, better known as Tank from the band Tank and the Bangas, brings all the soul, lyricism, and honesty from her music into her debut poetry collection, Vulnerable AF. It’s raw, it’s tender, and it reads like a diary cracked wide open. Through love poems and heartbreak confessions, she walks us through the full life cycle of a relationship, from the butterflies to the unraveling.

There’s something about a summer love that feels both infinite and fleeting—intense, messy, unforgettable. That’s exactly what Tank taps into. These poems feel like a crush that turns into an obsession, like late-night car conversations at 2 a.m., only to end up as complete strangers at the end of it. If you’ve ever fallen fast and deep under the summer sun, this collection will hit close to home.

3. We Find Our Way by reyna biddy 

If I could describe this collection in just a few words, I’d call it reverent, ethereal, and deeply intimate. Reyna Biddy has a rare gift for vulnerability—her poems feel like they speak directly to your spirit. We Find Our Way, much like its author, is rooted in healing. It’s about choosing growth, over and over again, through every season of life.

At the time of its release, Biddy was co-hosting the Unpack and Bounce Back podcast, where her reflective insights and spoken word segments inspired even the most guarded hearts to begin their healing journeys. This book keeps that same energy. It’s a gentle guide—a mix of affirmations, short reflections, and longer verses that feel tailor-made for quiet mornings.

This one is perfect for those slow summer starts. Let it be your reminder to pause, breathe, and come home to yourself.

4. Salt by Nayyirah Waheed

Nayyirah Waheed may remain a mystery to the public, but her words speak volumes. Salt is gritty, tender, and unflinching—a quiet storm of a collection. Through stark, minimalist verse, Waheed explores the Black diasporic experience in all its complexity: the ache, the pride, the fragmentation, and the longing to belong.

When I think of Salt, I think of the summer of 2020—the protests, the heat, the collective heartbreak and awakening. This book felt like both a balm and a battle cry in those moments. Waheed writes to soothe just as much as she writes to shake us awake: to remind us that healing is its own form of resistance.

Salt is a call to look inward, to remember who we are to each other, and to demand more from ourselves, our communities, and the world. It’s a necessary read, especially in a season that asks us to feel deeply, reflect fiercely, and imagine something freer.

5. Nappy Edges by Ntozake Shange 

Two years after releasing her most iconic work, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf, Ntozake Shange returned with Nappy Edges—a collection that leans into a lighter, more playful tone. Even the title is a celebration: an ode to Blackness in its most natural, unfiltered form. Shange reclaims the word nappy, making it tender, personal, and proud.

On the title page, she offers a note: “the roots of your hair / what turns back when we sweat, run, make love, dance, get afraid, get happy: the tell-tale sign of living.” And if that ain’t summer, what is?

Her language is whimsical, airy, almost musical. Reading this book feels like eavesdropping on your mama and aunties as they laugh and reminisce over Sunday dinner prep. Nappy Edges radiates the laid-back energy of the season—it’s poetry that dances, lingers, and lives. A perfect companion for warm nights on the porch, solo walks at golden hour, or any moment you want to feel held.

Whether you’re in the mood for something tender, nostalgic, healing, or just plain beautiful, these collections have a little bit of summer on every page, growth, joy, reflection, and a sense of freedom.

Poetry has a way of meeting us exactly where we are, and these books have done that for me time and time again. So wherever you find yourself this season—poolside, on a solo walk, journaling at sunrise, or unwinding after a long day—I hope you make space for words that move you.

Happy reading ya'll!