ES Lifestyle newsletter The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive trends and interviews from fashion, lifestyle to travel every week, by email Update newsletter preferences

In these modern times, many of us struggle to find time to sit down and read a good book.

What with the ease of television or podcasts at the tips of our fingers, reading a novel can now seem like a daunting task.

Poetry, however, is a forgotten art form in many ways. Dating back millenniums, poetry can be traced to Homeric times with his epics the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Yet, the thing about poetry is short verses can take you on intense journeys and the prose is often the most beautiful you will read.

And while we fawn over Maya Angelou, Shakespeare, Walt Whitman and Sylvia Plath, poetry is making a return for the millennial age, so we’ve listed the best modern day poetry books below to celebrate NationalPoetry Day 2019.

1. The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

The follow-on from Kaur’s bestselling Milk and Honey, The Sun and Her Flowers follows a similar line of growth and healing from pain. Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the poems tell a story of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming.

2. She Must Be Mad by Charly Cox

Charly Cox’s poetry has come to my attention in the most millennial way possible – through Instagram. Having followed her for a while, Cox posts relatable prose including a personal favourite about kale. Yes, kale. Her first book is no available.

3. Plum by Hollie McNish

Winner of the Ted Hughes Award for Poetry, Holly McNish has been thrilling UK audiences for a few years now with her spoken word poetry. Plum recounts candid memories from her childhood and attempted adulthood in a sometime rude but always entertaining way.

4. Running Upon The Wires by Kate Tempest

Kate Tempest’ sixth book is her second foray into free-standing poetry following 2016’s acclaimed Hold Your Own. Unashamedly truthful, Tempest cements her role as one of the world’s best modern day poets charting heartbreak, the end of a relationship and the growing signs of a new love.

5. What I Learned From Johnny Bevan by Luke Wright

Essex-born Wright began writing and performing poetry at age 17 after seeing Martin Newell and John Cooper Clarke perform. His poems frequently discuss the lives of the British working-class. In his 2016 book he tells the story, through verse, of a university student called Johnny saving a man called Nick and how their lives intertwine 20 years later.