Celebrating National Poetry Month 2021 with Norton poets

2 min readApr 28, 2021

As National Poetry Month 2021 comes to an end, celebrate by watching Norton poets read their work!

US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo reads “Break My Heart,” a poem featured in her collection An American Sunrise.

An American Sunrise is a nationally best-selling volume of wise, powerful poetry from the first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States.

Kim Addonizio reads “To the Woman Crying Uncontrollably in the Next Stall,” from her new collection Now We’re Getting Somewhere.

A dark, no-holds-barred, and often hilarious collection from this prize-winning poet, veering between the poles of self and world.

Reginald Dwayne Betts reads “Blood History,” from his NAACP Image Award-winning collection Felon.

In fierce, agile poems, Felon tells the story of the effects of incarceration, and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagined life.

Sandra Beasley reads “Still Life with Sex,” from her new collection Made to Explode.

With lacerating honesty, technical mastery, and abiding compassion, Made to Explode offers volatile poems for our volatile times.

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winner Martín Espada reads “Death Rides an Elevator in Brooklyn,” from his new collection, Floaters.

Floaters offers exuberant odes and defiant elegies, songs of protest and songs of love from one of the essential voices in American poetry.

Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove reads “Spring Cricket,” from her piercing, unflinching new volume Playlist For The Apocalypse (in stores 8/3).

Celebrating National Poetry Month 2021 with Norton poets

Written by W. W. Norton & Company