How in tune are you to your own poetry?

[CharleyH]

I've been thinking (never a good thing - lol) about where we get our poetic influences and styles. I adore the absurdist and nonsense poets like Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, and I adore the darkness of poets like Poe. I don't write like them, but they do influence me in my short quip nihilistic lines. What are your favourite poets, how do they influence you and what do you take from them?

 

[bronzeage]

In no particular order,

Walt Whitman
Charles Bukowski
Allen Ginsberg
Vachel Lindsey
Shel Silverstein.

I like all of these for the honesty of imagery they display. There is nothing obscure or obtuse. Their poems are not vague or ambiguous.

 

[DeepAsleep]

Cataloging influence is hard. I see this as a series of arcs, not really a list I can point to, if that makes sense.

When I first read bukowski, i leaned towards that kind of stark, "honest" pseudo-shocking voice, and then I moved away from it (haha, some of you won't agree). Cummings made me fascinated with using words in new ways, and listening to how words fit together, and I never moved away from that, though I think I've focused less on it, lately. Crane made me want to be unapologetic, even more than Bukowski did. Eliot made me never want to include references that weren't universal, even if they were well-written. Academia made me never want to write stuffy poems. Slam made me want to write better poems that affect people. Performance gave me a better understanding of flow. Lately, it's been a double whammy between Rachel McKibbens and (tada...) John Rybicki, who both have this slight edge of magic to their work, as if anything in the scene is a participant, or a witness.

I also go back and re-read my old poems, to remind myself that I'm improving as a writer, and to better understand my failures.

 

[butters]

I am a big fan of Whitman too - reading him inspired me to allow exuberance into my writing at the time, a love of living, a love of words ...

Byron - ah, Byron. The Darkness, a poem that made a big impact on me ... but even more, as a whole, i enjoy his irreverence, his sharp wit, his laying it on the line, his relevance. even today i find a modernity about his writing that makes it easy to forget he's been dead so very long.

Shakespeare - of course. Lively mastercraftsman ...reading him whets my love of language further, and his masterclasses in writing form whilst still engaging the reader are an ocean worth diving into over and over again. I don't see his influence in my own writing unless it's reflected in the way i embrace playing on and with words. Having said that, i don't think Shakey needs to be shakin in his boots Definitely not

Neruda - I'm getting to know this writer slowly, but am enchanted by his grace, his sinuous, feline writing.

actually, there are way too many, from Basho to hundreds of contemporary poets whose works i read from day to day. I think every poem, every poet i read has some small influence upon my writing, even if it's down to how they've broadened my own horizons or made me understand something i didn't before - or even those who've made me realise i make the same mistakes they have!

 

[bflagsst]

I think I've said the same five or so poets over and over here.

Dylan T (under milk wood)
Pablo N (Love poems and song of despair)
Yeats W. B. (his 1920's work)
Elizabeth Barrett-B. (sonnets)
Dorothy Parker (enough rope)

bench warmers:

Wallace Stevens (harmonium and guitar)
Oni Buchanan (what animal?)
Shakey (measure for measure)
rimbaud (his five poems)
Pushkin (the bronze horseman)

Pretty much for every poem I try to write like the first five, once in a while I'll throw someone else in from the second group. I'd like to write like Langston Hughes would write if he were a female surrealist. For all these people I'd like to think I know their entire body of work, read all their 'every poem' collections to get a feel for early, middle, late. I usually have a purpose, a goal for writing, I can't just let my hands wander.

 

[champagne1982]

Can I still say how much Rumi has left his mark on my poems--spiritual and yet, falling-down-drunk in giggles. Then e.e. cummings, shape, white space and cleverness in breaking his poetry. I am romanced by the English masters. Dead white guys still have a space on my disks.

Mostly, I'm influenced by the fine pieces all of those internet editors seem to gather up regularly and prod into a 'zine.

 

[annaswirls]

smithpeter et al
took from him courage to write whatever came into my twisted little mind

james lineberger
took from him courage to write my heart, to not be ashamed of who I am

wickedeve
I admire the hell out of this woman, reading her always puts a kink into my thinking and I love what that does to my writing

bit-o-patcarrington
he whipped me into shape so that even though my words may be oddly placed, hopefully they are more approachable

I don't find myself being as influenced by what I read as I am with the interaction with living people, the different parts of my brain that relating to them stimulates me. There are other poets on lit and other boards I have participated in who have influenced my thinking~ don't want to start to list because I will miss someone I always do, ohwhatthefuck

*Neo and 4degrees, Perks and Tarablackwood made me feel sexy and out poured erotica,

*denishale got my motor running, gave me courage to write whatever the fuck I wanted to write about.
*Tathagathahata and Syndralyn made me want to go deeper,

and pretty much everyone I interact with on here influences my writing.
*1201, Rybka, Tzara, Angeline, bflagg, epmd, Senna and YDD and more made me want to be a better writer, to take myself more seriously

it is so cliche but I am very much influenced by trees and water

I miss echos
and flyguy
and Liar
and and and Neo

 

[Epmd607]

I try to imitate poems and poets. Ideally, someone will read one of my poems and say, "Sure, that's fantastic, but it sounds too much like ee cum or ezra pound, sounds like a footnote to Waste Land." Oh yeah, I'm definitely trying to steal your good ideas Lit poets, and rewrite your ideas into something you'd like but wouldn't quite recognize.

"if you must write prose/poems
the words you use should be your own
don't plagiarize or take "on loan"
there's always someone, somewhere
with a big nose, who knows
who trips you up and laughs
when you fall"

 

[butters]

hmmm - i've never deliberately set out to write 'like another poet', unless as a part of some little sport on a forum where we all had to write something and the winner was the one people felt was nearest the original style. otherwise, i want to say what i want to say, in my way - they already had their shots or still are.

 

[gothbabe66]

I write what I feel, which in my poetry is dark and depressing. Ive had someone tell me I write like Poe but I consider him a genius, and I am not nearly as talented.

 

[champagne1982]

I write what I feel, which in my poetry is dark and depressing. Ive had someone tell me I write like Poe but I consider him a genius, and I am not nearly as talented.

I apologize in advance but when someone expresses that they write their "feelings" I need to comment.

f you always write what you feel, how will you grow? Emotive poems, for the most, are very "immature" poems. Now, I don't mean the poet is immature, just that their theme and word choice generally reflects a kind of teen level of development.

Think of poems as children, our first are babies, usually simply rhymed and metred, they grow, spread their wings and we write them with more thought to sound and illustration. Our teens, angst-ridden, depressed, dark and often full of adjectives, like the 15-year-old just kicked to the curb from their idol of puppy-belovedness. We need to let our poems grow up from there, and turn into a sophisticated adult ready to rouse deep thinking, high hilarity and fluid emotions.

We can't graduate until our teens begin to explore the adult world. That is all.

 

[The_Fool]

Influences? Hemingway, Harlan Ellison, Kurt Vonnegut, Langston Hughes, Auden, Elliot, Donne, Shakespeare

 

[EroticOrogeny]

I find it hard to say how I'm influenced by those poets I've read and enjoyed (including quite a few here and elsewher on line). Some of the poets I'd put on my list are Corso, Auden, Merwin, Nash, many more. Right now I can't get to my poetry books - lots of furniture we need to rearrange and so forth. Probably will do that when it gets hotter - now's the time to work in the garden.

 

[vrosej10]

I love Plath and my work is pretty dark at times (but not consistently on Lit). I like Wallace Stevens and lots of random writers. I love good erotic poetry and I really enjoy menace in a piece. I am very influenced by the song lyrics of Nick Cave pre getting off the heroin. That man does dark.

 

[CharleyH]

I think I've said the same five or so poets over and over here.

Dylan T (under milk wood)
Pablo N (Love poems and song of despair)
Yeats W. B. (his 1920's work)
Elizabeth Barrett-B. (sonnets)
Dorothy Parker (enough rope)

bench warmers:

Wallace Stevens (harmonium and guitar)
Oni Buchanan (what animal?)
Shakey (measure for measure)
rimbaud (his five poems)
Pushkin (the bronze horseman)

Pretty much for every poem I try to write like the first five, once in a while I'll throw someone else in from the second group. I'd like to write like Langston Hughes would write if he were a female surrealist. For all these people I'd like to think I know their entire body of work, read all their 'every poem' collections to get a feel for early, middle, late. I usually have a purpose, a goal for writing, I can't just let my hands wander.

I adore Dylan T. I'm surprised you added his (brilliant satire) play (or was it a novel - my memory is weak) to your mix and not his poems. Curious.

 

[bflagsst]

I adore Dylan T. I'm surprised you added his (brilliant satire) play (or was it a novel - my memory is weak) to your mix and not his poems. Curious.

Wood's got some fun poetry going on in it, and with some serious tweaking it could have been a fantastic verse novel. There are passages that inspire whole poems. His short poems aren't easy to pick up things from, but Wood has a lot of accessible tricks I've used.

MR EDWARDS

I am a draper mad with love. I love you more than all the flannelette and calico, candlewick, dimity, crash and merino, tussore, cretonne, crepon, muslin, poplin, ticking and twill in the whole Cloth Hall of the world. I have come to take you away to my Emporium on the hill, where the change hums on wires. Throw away your little bedsocks and your Welsh wool knitted jacket, I will warm the sheets like an electric toaster, I will lie by your side like the Sunday roast.
.............

The hum sings on wires,
the change rolls from your mouth,
you’re lily and orchid and honeycomb,
you’re the radio static,
the broadcast from the back of the turtle,
and the turtle shell and the kimono,
and the black obiage binding the kimono,
‘round your swell waist where you hold baby
lullaby, my lullaby

 

[CharleyH]

Wood's got some fun poetry going on in it, and with some serious tweaking it could have been a fantastic verse novel. There are passages that inspire whole poems. His short poems aren't easy to pick up things from, but Wood has a lot of accessible tricks I've used.

MR EDWARDS

I am a draper mad with love. I love you more than all the flannelette and calico, candlewick, dimity, crash and merino, tussore, cretonne, crepon, muslin, poplin, ticking and twill in the whole Cloth Hall of the world. I have come to take you away to my Emporium on the hill, where the change hums on wires. Throw away your little bedsocks and your Welsh wool knitted jacket, I will warm the sheets like an electric toaster, I will lie by your side like the Sunday roast.
.............

The hum sings on wires,
the change rolls from your mouth,
you’re lily and orchid and honeycomb,
you’re the radio static,
the broadcast from the back of the turtle,
and the turtle shell and the kimono,
and the black obiage binding the kimono,
‘round your swell waist where you hold baby
lullaby, my lullaby

 

[butters]

Wood's got some fun poetry going on in it, and with some serious tweaking it could have been a fantastic verse novel. There are passages that inspire whole poems. His short poems aren't easy to pick up things from, but Wood has a lot of accessible tricks I've used.

MR EDWARDS

I am a draper mad with love. I love you more than all the flannelette and calico, candlewick, dimity, crash and merino, tussore, cretonne, crepon, muslin, poplin, ticking and twill in the whole Cloth Hall of the world. I have come to take you away to my Emporium on the hill, where the change hums on wires. Throw away your little bedsocks and your Welsh wool knitted jacket, I will warm the sheets like an electric toaster, I will lie by your side like the Sunday roast.
.............

The hum sings on wires,
the change rolls from your mouth,
you’re lily and orchid and honeycomb,
you’re the radio static,
the broadcast from the back of the turtle,
and the turtle shell and the kimono,
and the black obiage binding the kimono,
‘round your swell waist where you hold baby
lullaby, my lullaby

ba goom, lad, tha be summat, rite..

 

[newman9800]

I also go back to read my old poem.I like all of these for the honesty. There is nothing obscure, Their poems are not vague or ambiguous.
_________________________________________________
Office Furniture

 

[Palba_Noruda]

I grabbed some books from around the house. I guess mostly just contemporary stuff. Some of what I've been looking at lately:

Wislawa Szymborska
I love how she uses repetition
I love that her poetry often sounds more like dialogue and that she's not afraid to be philosophical... I don't really do philosophy in poetry, because I don't think it would work for me, but perhaps she is able to bring more of herself to the page because she's willing to go there. For instance, the poem Live While You Wait. She is probably my current favorite.

Diane Wakoski
Not really that much of an influence, but I've used her poems as spring boards.
From the back of the book: "mythologizer of sex and self"
In her own words: "utter contempt for pettiness of imagination"

Michel Foucault
Not really a poet but the little bit of his writing I was able to penetrate, and another book, by James Berlin, turned me away from what I was doing and helped me get to poetry and narrative writing. I'm quite grateful for that because this kind of writing feels much better

Federico Garcia Lorca
Had the opportunity to recite some of his poetry. I enjoy his surrealism. Cancion del muchacho de siete corazones
Song of the boy of Seven Hearts.../Seven girls carried me around in their mirrors...

Makes me want to learn French and Italian so I can recite a bit of their poetry also LOL

Pablo Neruda
It's been awhile since I've read Neruda. I had some of his poems memorized in Spanish for awhile but they didn't stick. A couple of the images did now that I think of it I particularly liked Ode to the Storm... I think back to the place I lived when I knew those poems, as if the places were pneumonic devices, and that is a pleasurable way to remember.

Octavio Paz
Turned me on to Hispanic poetry... Got a great book of his from a library that was near to my heart and fell in love with it... Paz is much more cosmic than I think I would ever dare to be... He once said in an interview that poetry is the new religion... I've quoted that about a million times online LOL

Kenneth Rexroth
This guy translated tons of Asian poetry. I went through several of his books... The one I have now is called Women Poets of Japan by Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi... I had the chance to recite a poem from the book: Unable to sleep/I gaze at the flowers of the bush clover/as the dew forms on them from the long night/ till suddenly, before dawn/ they are scattered by the wind. I just love that. The ancient Asian poets had there favorite themes, the scattering of flower petals was used over and over again in different contexts. There is a beautiful longer poem in which the narrator watches a girl combing her hair, and then the girl rushes out of the house and flies down the stairs and disturbs the flowers of a tree as she rushes away... I can never remember the name of it or the poet

Alice Munro
Not technically a poet, but I think short stories and novels can be considered forms of poetry. Her story Free Radicals (available online at the New Yorker) really is a nice demonstration of form. Was it a dream or was it real? It was neither, it is a short story LOL.

I like the way she describes people.

Sharon Olds
She just creeps me the fuck out. And she seems fearless to me. I respect that. Considering I am not fearless on this board and I hide behind an alt. LOL.

I think there are some amazing poets here on Lit and I certainly draw great inspiration and energy from that. Thanks! I also am able to be around poets at workshops and readings from time to time and that is almost always an inspiring experience.

Whitman:
Repititio

David Berman
The book actual air had an affect on me. I encountered it in my friend's home and I liked it. It was nice to see poetry that wasn't presented in an academic setting.

I like a lot of song writers...

 

[CharleyH]

I grabbed some books from around the house. I guess mostly just contemporary stuff. Some of what I've been looking at lately:

Wislawa Szymborska
...
Diane Wakoski
...
Michel Foucault
...
Federico Garcia Lorca
...
Pablo Neruda
...
Octavio Paz
...
Kenneth Rexroth
...
Alice Munro
...
Sharon Olds
...
Whitman:
...
David Berman

I like a lot of song writers...

Interesting though. We all have multiple influences, whether they be poets, theorists, authors, artists, actors, musicians, architects, myths ... our influences over time collide with our lives and ultimately our poetry. This thought has me thinking. On the AH we used to have a challenge ... it was about all of us writing about a single subject and the challenge was to guess the writer based on their voice. Is it possible to have such a challenge here, or do poets not have a significant enough signature (voice) as writers?

 

[CharleyH]

Always urned me on to new philosophical stuff.
--------------------


Online Business

Please say more ... not quite getting you.

 

[butters]

Interesting though. We all have multiple influences, whether they be poets, theorists, authors, artists, actors, musicians, architects, myths ... our influences over time collide with our lives and ultimately our poetry. This thought has me thinking. On the AH we used to have a challenge ... it was about all of us writing about a single subject and the challenge was to guess the writer based on their voice. Is it possible to have such a challenge here, or do poets not have a significant enough signature (voice) as writers?

collide. i like that word to describe the way it sometimes feels. at others, it seems more a process of osmosis, an absorbing of nutrients that feed our imagination.

i'd say some poets definitely have that clear voice that identifies them as the writer; one needs to be familiar with the different voices in order to establish identities, though. and then there are those writers undergoing those recurrent metamorphosis whereby a newer, improved/altered voice begins to make itself known to the readers. of course, some writers are still in the process of determining what their voice sounds like in the first place. it wasn't something i give much time to thinking about, especially when writing - all that navel-gazing and dissection is better done after the fact than during. during has to be about being in the moment, for me at least.

 

[CharleyH]

collide. i like that word to describe the way it sometimes feels. at others, it seems more a process of osmosis, an absorbing of nutrients that feed our imagination.

i'd say some poets definitely have that clear voice that identifies them as the writer; one needs to be familiar with the different voices in order to establish identities, though. and then there are those writers undergoing those recurrent metamorphosis whereby a newer, improved/altered voice begins to make itself known to the readers. of course, some writers are still in the process of determining what their voice sounds like in the first place. it wasn't something i give much time to thinking about, especially when writing - all that navel-gazing and dissection is better done after the fact than during. during has to be about being in the moment, for me at least.

I still think that no matter what the challenge, I could pluck out the voices of Ang, Lauren, Tess, Rem and maybe even The Fool, Champagne or Tzara, given time.

Poets, like writers or filmmakers, always leave a signature in their work. It's the fodder that designs auteur, it's the substance that makes a poet unique. Isn't it that specific signature or tell that transforms one from mediocre poet to potentially great one? We can learn a lot from a challenge like this ...

As a start, I'd love to invite 10 poets into a challenge. 10 Poets I admire to write about the same subject, the only challenge is for viewers to make educated guesses on which poet wrote which poem once they are submitted.

I invite:

Angeline
Lauren
Wicked Eve
The Fool
Champagne
Tristesse
Remec
Tzara
Annaswirls
EroticOrogeny

Any takers?

Lauren is already in.

Sorry for the thread jack ... I will repost the challenge.

 

[Angeline]

Here, for good or ill, are my influences:

Shakespeare because how can any modern English-writing poet not be influenced by him? The whole notion of the teeniest fluff of humanity being capable of great tragedy or comedy or depth and nuance at all comes from his work. You could argue that certain of his contemporaries or predecessors (in other cultures, too) did this as well or better, but for most modern writers of English he's pretty much it. Lots more people know Hamlet than anything Aristophanes wrote, for example.

William Butler Yeats, I love love love for the lyricism, the formal yet so modern voice, the wonderful internal rhyme and assonance, etc., and for the wistful yearning quality in his writing that is a direct influence on me.

Ted Berrigan because he is funny and absurd but also direct and unflinching. And he writes of times and themes that feel relevent to my own life.

Forough Farrokhzad is my first favorite poet. I carried a poem of hers in my wallet for 18 years. Her writing is lush and sensual and somehow ancient and biblical sounding even though she was writing in the early to mid twentieth century.

And anyone who knows me here knows that jazz music is a big influence on me. I write to jazz and I think in jazz. Jazz is the sound of poetry to me.