Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation
By edited by Roger HousdenFor a poetry newbie, Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation is a nice introduction to the greats, both contemporary and historical. Hildegard of Bingen, who died in the 1100s, is included, yet so are poets like Billy Collins and Marie Howe who are alive and well.
My favorite, I think, is "So Much Happiness" by Naomi Shihab Nye, which begins,
It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there is something to rub against
A wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,
Something to hold in