Straub has also published several books of poetry. "My Life in Pictures" appeared in 1971 as part of a series of six poetry pamphlets Straub published with his friend Thomas Tessier under the Seafront Press imprint while living in Dublin. In 1972 the more substantial chapbook "Ishmael" was published by Turret Books in London. Straub's third book of poetry, "Open Air", appeared later that same year from Irish University Press. The collection "Leeson Park and Belsize Square: Poems 1970 – 1975" was published by Underwood-Miller in October 1983. This collection reprints much of "Ishmael" along with previously uncollected poems, but none of the poems from "Open Air".