Which poets do you study?

[AChild]

In this game we call the word greatness can be put on a meter, but flavor is another cup of tea. Which poet hits all your taste buds just right and why?

I have to keep reading Bukowski. In my own poetry I try to convey the emotional response with fantastic imagery. Bukowski does it simple but still can make you laugh, cry and cringe. I like reading Rainman's stuff for the same reason.
Somehow I can't convince myself that this is the kind of poetry I can pull off.

I started this thread just to get a goo x-mas list going.

 

[eagleyez]

In this game we call the word greatness can be put on a meter, but flavor is another cup of tea. Which poet hits all your taste buds just right and why?

I have to keep reading Bukowski. In my own poetry I try to convey the emotional response with fantastic imagery. Bukowski does it simple but still can make you laugh, cry and cringe. I like reading Rainman's stuff for the same reason.
Somehow I can't convince myself that this is the kind of poetry I can pull off.

I started this thread just to get a goo x-mas list going.

I saw Buk read at an old movie theatre in the Fillmore district of SF in the late 70's. His terror at the event was palpable, yet he pulled it off in front of a packed house, with the aid of a galvanized halfbarrel of green bottle beer-one per poem.

He was showered with empty beer bottles and whiskey pints, along with obligatory flowers as the reading wound down. The crowd was raucous and unruly, yet he was meek and timid as a scared child.

It was the most memorable poetry reading I have attended. He fused a blue collar ethos with a scholars sensibility that was both alluring and confounding at the same time. He sat at a child's schooldesk with a pile of notes/books at his side.

 

[Decayed Angel]

There are so many books

that I think should be on a must have list. I am not sure about study, but I have read and thoroughly enjoyed:

Sylvia Plath - Ariel, her last book of poems before her death, perhaps giving you a glimpse of her mental state leading up to her suicide. You might want the Pulitzer Prize winning Collected Poems by Sylvia, edited by Ted Hughes after her death.

Anne Sexton - The Complete Poems - I went for all her poems here, some of her good individual titles include That Awful Rowing Towards God , Transformations and Live or Die - she won a Pulitzer Prize for that one.

Adrianne Rich - The Fact of a Door Frame or Diving into the Wreck both strong and inspiring work.

Wislawa Szymborska - View with a Grain of Sand -

The Voice that is Great Within Us - an anthology edited by Hayden Carruth, will give you an excellent look at a lot of 20th Century poets. I have purchased a number of copies of this one and wore each out...

The haiku Anthology - edited by Cor van den Heuvel, possible the best anthology on English language haiku. The preface alone is worth the cost of the book.

All of the above books have been out a while and you should be able to find copies at used book stores. I am not sure all of Sexton's individual works are still in print but most of the books above can be found at Amazon.com.

There are a lot more, but any of those above will be an excellent book to own.


jim : )

 

[ParrotDee]

In this game we call the word greatness can be put on a meter, but flavor is another cup of tea. Which poet hits all your taste buds just right and why?

I have to keep reading Bukowski. In my own poetry I try to convey the emotional response with fantastic imagery. Bukowski does it simple but still can make you laugh, cry and cringe. I like reading Rainman's stuff for the same reason.
Somehow I can't convince myself that this is the kind of poetry I can pull off.

I started this thread just to get a goo x-mas list going.

I don't get this, I admit my knowledge of both is limited, Bukowski compared to the Rainman? Unless this is a ploy to get books you want for X-mas. I know you gave a reason, can you give some examples to back up this comparison.
Strikes me as Sit-com vs Drama. (capital D)
I mean it's ok to like both, I do, but the only think Bukowski has over the Rainman may be a sense of timing and the Black Sparrow Press. Otherwise, as far as poetry is concerned Rainman all the way. (Just my inflammatory small change.)
Of course Rimbaud had it over both of them. His only drawback, he wrote in French, the dummy.

 

[TheRainMan]

there is so much great poetry around to read.

i read as much as i can, writers from the past. but being that i am writing in the present, i also try to keep up with contemporary poetry.

here are three book recommendations, poets I think are among the best writing now:

Tell Me by Kim Addonizio

Donkey Gospel by Tony Hoagland

The Legend of Light by Bob Hicok

 

[Decayed Angel]

Tell Me by Kim Addonizio

Kim Addonizio huh? I've seen several other people recommend her work. I'll have to test the waters on her. Thanks for the recommendation.

jim : )

 

[TheRainMan]

Kim Addonizio huh? I've seen several other people recommend her work. I'll have to test the waters on her. Thanks for the recommendation ...

jim : )

you're welcome.

here, dip your toe in this ...


The Divorcee and Gin

I love the frosted pints you come in,
and the tall bottles with their uniformed men;
the bars where you’re poured chilled
into shallow glasses, the taste of drowned olives,
and the scrawled benches where I see you
passed impatiently from one mouth
to another, the bag twisted tight around
your neck, the hand that holds you
shaking a little from its need
which is the true source of desire, God, I love
what you do to me at night when we’re alone,
how you wait for me to take you into me
until I’m so confused with you I can’t
stand up anymore. I know you want me
helpless, each cell whimpering, and I give
you that, letting you have me just the way
you like it. And when you’re finished
you turn your face to the wall while I curl
around you again, and enter another morning
with aspirin and the useless ache
that comes from loving, too well,
those who, under the guise of pleasure,
destroy everything they touch.

 

[Angeline]

I love and study William Butler Yeats, Adrienne Rich, Ted Berrigan, Yusef Komunyakaa, Robert Browning, Forugh Farrokzhad, Sandra Cisneros, and many others. Like Rainman, I read a lot of new poetry and there are many poems I find I love, but no single new voice strikes my fancy like the ones I just listed.

I also read the poets of the Harlem Rennaisance because many of them (like Langston Hughes) are very musical in a jazzy-blusesy way, which appeals to me and I think musically when I write (if that makes sense).

I read quite a bit of jazz poetry for the same reason.

 

[RhymeFairy]

you're welcome.

here, dip your toe in this ...


The Divorcee and Gin

I love the frosted pints you come in,
and the tall bottles with their uniformed men;
the bars where you’re poured chilled
into shallow glasses, the taste of drowned olives,
and the scrawled benches where I see you
passed impatiently from one mouth
to another, the bag twisted tight around
your neck, the hand that holds you
shaking a little from its need
which is the true source of desire, God, I love
what you do to me at night when we’re alone,
how you wait for me to take you into me
until I’m so confused with you I can’t
stand up anymore. I know you want me
helpless, each cell whimpering, and I give
you that, letting you have me just the way
you like it. And when you’re finished
you turn your face to the wall while I curl
around you again, and enter another morning
with aspirin and the useless ache
that comes from loving, too well,
those who, under the guise of pleasure,
destroy everything they touch.

This left me speechless. I had to reread to get past the imagery. Very poignant and even sexy ... Thank you for sharing Rain ~

 

[Tzara]

If you mean "study" in the sense of reading over and over trying to analyze what makes a poem work, I wouldn't say I study poets so much as individual poems. Shelley's "Ozymandias", for example, or Yeats' "Leda and the Swan".

As for poets whose work really appeals to me, I would mention several whom others have already named, especially Kim Addonizio (though I would have picked her latest book--it's so hot you need to wear Nomex gloves when you read it), Bob Hicock (thank you Mr. Rain for mentioning him--he rocks), Sylvia Plath.

Lorna Crozier, a Canadian poet whose work has been mentioned here, is someone I quite enjoy reading.

What I've read of Alan Dugan has been really really good.

There's a very interesting book by W.D. Snodgrass titled De/Compositions, where he takes famous poems and rewrites them to have the same (literal) sense but which strips the poem of what makes it special. "Teaching through bad example," sort of.

The late Kenneth Koch is my favorite contemporary poet. Funny as hell.

 

[bogusbrig]

I'll read anything contemporary though I can't say I go as far as to study contemporary work though of course some does leave an impression on me that has me asking how the hell did they write that!

For some reason I love war poetry. The usual first and second world war suspects. I think I was 'got at' at school.

Then I came across two books in a second hand store that made me gasp WOW! Steve Mason's 'Johnny's Song' about Vietnam and Keith Wilson's "Graves Registry' about Korea. Two books everyone should read, not only for the poetry but the poetry is good too.

 

[normal jean]

I have a tendency to dwell upon the works of TS Eliot and Walt Whitman. And Poe, cant forget Poe....

 

[MyNecroticSnail]

I have a tendency to dwell upon the works of TS Eliot and Walt Whitman. And Poe, cant forget Poe....

There is an essay by Eliot called From Poe to Valery
worth reading.

There is an mock column by Guillaume Apollinaire called Walt Whitman's Funeral as Described by an Eyewitness, never mind we'll forget that one

 

[RhymeFairy]

Have to BUMP this thread too.

As we all know, our flavor of taste changes almost on a daily basis.


So, who are we all reading now??

 

[Angeline]

Have to BUMP this thread too.

As we all know, our flavor of taste changes almost on a daily basis.


So, who are we all reading now??

Morning RF. Hope all is well (and no doubt warmer) in your corner of the world.

I am of late rereading Ted Berrigan: On the Level Everday, Selected Talks on Poetry and the Art of Living. It's a a series of lectures he gave on writing and publishing poetry. I return to it over and over because I find Berrigan wise and very funny.

I also read the collected works of Joseph Brodsky recently and a collection of poems by May Sarton.

And right now I'm reading Sula by Toni Morrison, which is a novel, but a very poetic one.

So what are you reading?

 

[Tzara]

Yukio Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea and a poetry chapbook by some guy named Carrington.

 

[unapologetic]

Right now

I'm reading through an old copy of Poetry magazine that I picked up at a library book sale - the humor issue from 2005. The variety of styles is informative to my own. I'm actually thinking of shelling out the $35 for a subscription.

 

[The_Fool]

I love and study William Butler Yeats, Adrienne Rich, Ted Berrigan, Yusef Komunyakaa, Robert Browning, Forugh Farrokzhad, Sandra Cisneros, and many others. Like Rainman, I read a lot of new poetry and there are many poems I find I love, but no single new voice strikes my fancy like the ones I just listed.

I also read the poets of the Harlem Rennaisance because many of them (like Langston Hughes) are very musical in a jazzy-blusesy way, which appeals to me and I think musically when I write (if that makes sense).

I read quite a bit of jazz poetry for the same reason.

The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
(1923)

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway ....
He did a lazy sway ....
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan--
"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."
Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more--
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied--
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead

 

[Angeline]

The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
(1923)

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway ....
He did a lazy sway ....
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan--
"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."
Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more--
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied--
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead

Fooly, if memory serves you have this on vinyl, right? But it can be heard online here. It really is a treat to listen to Langston Hughes read this--you get a real sense of the blues rhythm in his poetry.

 

[The_Fool]

Fooly, if memory serves you have this on vinyl, right? But it can be heard online here. It really is a treat to listen to Langston Hughes read this--you get a real sense of the blues rhythm in his poetry.

Plastic, not vinyl, but yes I do...and it is killer blues tunes to go with the words.

 

[WynEternal]

No matter whom or what I read, I always go back to W.B. Yeats and Padraig Pearse.

 

[fcdc]

I'll second (or whatever) Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, and Yeats, and also toss in Philip Larkin, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Andrew Marvell, John Donne, John Keats, Lord Byron, Wilfred Owen, Archibald Macleish, Conrad Aiken, Gwendolyn Brooks, Dylan Thomas, Howard Nemerov. Most of them are old standards, but they are old standards for a reason, and I write formalist poetry, so of course generally favor the formalists.

Wordsworth is overrated, and I do not enjoy him. Same thing with Maya Angelou.

The best poet few people know is Kenneth Patchen. Brilliant stuff.

The Hangman's Great Hands, by Kenneth Patchen

And all that is this day...
The boy with cap slung over what had been a face...

Somehow the cop will sleep tonight, will make love to
his wife...
Anger won't help. I was born angry. Angry that my
father was being burnt alive in the mills; Angry that
none of us knew anything but filth, and poverty. Angry
because I was that very one somebody was supposed
To be fighting for
Turn him over; take a good look at his face...
Somebody is going to see that face for a long time.
I wash his hands that in the brightness they will shine.

We have a parent called the earth.
To be these buds and trees; this tameless bird Within
the ground; this season's act upon the fields of Man.
To be equal to the littlest thing alive,
While all the swarming stars move silent through The
merest flower
... but the fog of guns.

The face with all the draining future left blank...
Those smug saints, whether of church or Stalin, Can
get off the back of my people, and stay off. Somebody
is supposed to be fighting for somebody... And Lenin
is terribly silent, terribly silent and dead.

 

[FifthFlower]

Margaret Menamin

At the moment I'm reading Margaret Menamin's poetry.