New & Selected Poems by Thomas Lux
An introduction to a dark and humorous sensibility I’ve tried to emulate.

The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems by Albert Goldbarth
Has whatever kind of work might be your taste, from short lyrics to longer works.

The Endarkenment by Jeffrey McDaniel
Inventive and intelligent, this book also becomes more personal in a moving way.

Nightworks by Marvin Bell
Bell has a such a great humanistic and wise sensibility.

Some Ether by Nick Flynn
Great personal poetry by a writer whose memoirs are also wonderful.

Bio: Donald Illich has published work in LIT, The Iowa Review, Nimrod, and other journals. He lives in Rockville, Maryland where he works as a writer-editor. Visit his blog.