Book 21 for 2026: You Are My Joy and Pain

You Are My Joy and Pain: Love Poems, by Naomi Long Madgett.

Naomi Long Madgett was the Poet Laureate of Detroit. Her best-known poems are about the Civil Rights Movement, but this book concentrates on her love poems. Both formal and free verse are included. The poems are accessible and usually pretty straightforward, but still feel fresh. For instance, it's hard to find a new way to compare love with a flower, but Madgett does it in the opening poem, "Heart-Blossom:"

First love came timidly and full of fear -
love, the late bud that felt its time to grow
was past and shuddered in December's cold.
But then, when warmer turned the ripening year,
up from the seed my heart had dared to sow
burst the full blossom, colorful and bold.

The book's first section, "A Promise of Sun," contains poems of joy. The second section, "Trinity: a Dream Sequence," is a 20-part poem with imagery from the Bible and Greek mythology:


8.
I will be your Eve, 
fulfill your need of conscience for a name
and thereby give you peace.

Brand this I give you Apple of Destruction,
Lure of the Golden Death;
it may be so.

The final section, "Stormy Weather," contains poems of lost love and regret, like "Discards:"

I emptied your wastebasket the other day
and found the star I gave you once
​when we went walking on air.

Popsugar Reading Challenge: A book set in Michigan, or by an author from Michigan.
52 Book Club Challenge: Started on the 26th of the month.
Booklist Queen Challenge: A book that makes you happy.
​This Challenge Killed the Bookworm: Pretty cover.
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