This is a list of the Governor General's Award winners for poetry. This award was created in 1981 when the Governor General's Award for English language poetry or drama was split in two.

• 1981 - F.R. Scott, The Collected Poems of F.R. Scott
• 1982 - Phyllis Webb, The Vision Tree: Selected Poems
• 1983 - David Donnell , Settlements
• 1984 - Paulette Jiles, Celestial Navigation
• 1985 - Fred Wah , Waiting for Saskatchewan
• 1986 - Al Purdy, The Collected Poems of Al Purdy
• 1987 - Gwendolyn MacEwen, Afterworlds
• 1988 - Erin Mouré, Furious
• 1989 - Heather Spears , The Word for Sand
• 1990 - Margaret Avison, No Time
• 1991 - Don McKay, Night Field
• 1992 - Lorna Crozier, Inventing the Hawk
• 1993 - Don Coles , Forests of the Medieval World
• 1994 - Robert Hilles, Cantos from a Small Room
• 1995 - Anne Szumigalski , Voice
• 1996 - E.D. Blodgett , Apostrophes: Woman at a Piano
• 1997 - Dionne Brand, Land to Light On
• 1998 - Stephanie Bolster, White Stone: The Alice Poems
• 1999 - Jan Zwicky, Songs for Relinquishing the Earth
• 2000 - Don McKay, Another Gravity
• 2001 - George Elliott Clarke, Execution Poems
• 2002 - Roy Miki, Surrender
• 2003 - Tim Lilburn , Kill-site
• 2004 - Roo Borson, Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida