>poetry

For poets and their faithful fans, every month is National Poetry Month. For the rest of us, there's April. Of the many fine volumes of poetry now in book-stores, some of these are bound to please.

Then, Suddenly by Lynn Emanuel In Emanuel's darkly romantic poems, the road to self-knowledge is littered with discarded masks: "I am a woman, one minute, then I am a man./ I am a carnival of Lynn Emanuels:/ Lynn in the red dress; Lynn sulking.../...when what I would really love to be is/ Gertrude Stein spying on Sharon Stone." (University of Pittsburgh, $25)

Giant Steps edited by Kevin Young Among the poets to watch in this impressive anthology of new African-American works are Natasha Trethewey (who depicts herself as Ophelia in one poem and Lana Turner in another), Harryette Mullen ("what you can do/ is what women do/ I know you know/ what I mean, don't you" and Young himself, who riffs on Charlie Chan, Langston Hughes and the late painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. (Perennial, $15)

New Addresses by Kenneth Koch Each of the 50 poems in this collection takes up an aspect of the distinguished poet's past. Full of comic energy tinged with pathos, this is Koch's best work in a decade. (Knopf, $23)

Men in the Off Hours by Anne Carson Carson, a classics professor, enjoys a growing reputation as a cutting-edge verse experimentalist. Her poems are as beguiling as their offbeat titles, such as "Irony Is Not Enough: Essay on My Life as Catherine Deneuve." (Knopf, $24)

First Loves edited by Carmela Ciuraru Notable poets talk about their favorites. Billy Collins chooses a John Donne poem; Eleanor Wilner salutes Lorenz Hart's lyrics for "The Lady Is a Tramp." Read the commentary, then the poem, and see if it hasn't become more accessible. (Scribner, $22)