Poets/Poems

[Angel_Grace_Blue 0]

Aside from the big-name guys like Bill Shakespeare and the like, I'm kinda fond of Billy Collins. Most of his that I've read is pretty funny and light. I also like Sharon Olds, among others.

 

As for individual poems, I've liked "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" for a while now. I just read "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and that's good too. There's too many to name right now (especially since I'm not thinking too much at this time), but I'll come back with more.

[Guest Fire and Knives]

Charles Bukowski is decidedly my all-time favorite. I was convinced my poetry was truly great and original until I picked up Bone Palace Ballet. I then wrote a rather Bukowski-ish poem titled "Fuck Bukowski", but that's neither here nor there.

 

Two other that are near and dear to my heart are Jack Micheline (another poet I patterned myself after without realizing it) and d.a. levy. Difficult to find, but worth looking for.

 

I haven't read much of Gerald Locklin outside of the odd anthology here and there, but "Beyond B.F. Skinner" is a favorite of mine, as is Henry Miller's "Advice to a Young Writer".

 

I also think the entire group of Beat artists is terribly overrated. Granted, On The Road is a classic, but the rest of Keroauc's spontaneous prose comes off as masturbatory more often than not, and Ginsberg was more lucky than good - "Howl" and "Kaddish" are epic, as is "Moloch", but anything less sprawling suffers from his style, or lack thereof. I doubt any of us would know his name, except the rest of the country was on drugs as well when he got started.

 

K.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Billy Collins is a tremendously deserving poet laureate. He strikes the perfect balance of pathos and bathos. I'll also second Bukowski for being interesting, though living in a dorm full of hippies has left me a bit overexposed.

 

I really dig the early Romantics - Wordsworth circa "Tintern Abbey," Coleridge circa "Kubla Khan." They were doing wonderfully hallucinatory stuff that remains better than anything Walt Whitman did a few years later. Alexander Pope is tremendous fun if you're into older stuff - I remain convinced that even the most casual literary aficionado can get a kick out of "The Rape of the Lock" and its bizarre toilet humor.

 

I also mark for all things Modernist and will go to bat for the imagery of the rare Joyce poem and Ezra Pound, even if it is dense, imagistic, and overly pretentious. When you're the first guy doing it, though, you get a bit of latitude.

[Guest Fire and Knives]

Really truly? I've always liked Whitman a great deal; I've found Leaves of Grass to be one of very few collections I can keep coming back to and reading again and again. Anybody more evocative than Whitman is somebody I have to read.

 

I'm at a bit of a disadvantage in this discussion, actually. I've never really had the opportunity to study poetry in any detail and it's difficult to come by serious discussion of the subject anywhere in my everyday life. The only poets I recognize are the poets I've come upon by chance; the only techniques and styles I recognize are ones I've used myself. Any recommendations I can pick up in this thread will be most appreciated.

 

K.

[muzz 0]

I've been tuned out since leaving school and haven't really bothered to study any poetry, which I should do. For now, I'd suggest Easter 1916 by Yeats, a favourite of mine.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Collins spoke at my university and it was awesome. He did a tremendous job. "Lanyard" is one of the sweetest poems ever.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Really truly? I've always liked Whitman a great deal; I've found Leaves of Grass to be one of very few collections I can keep coming back to and reading again and again. Anybody more evocative than Whitman is somebody I have to read.

It's certainly not to say that Whitman is bad. He's vital, and everyone ought to read "Song of Myself" whether they end up liking it or not. For me, though, the imagery and language that his predecessors hit on is more appealing. I'm not sure if they're as evocative in the same sense - the self-reflection and Big Time Ideas, for example - but Wordsworth can definitely match him in terms of Awe of Nature while Coleridge tears up the Fevered Opium Dream like no one else.

 

I'd say that they're neither quite as epic nor comforting as Whitman, but tremendously interesting and impactful, in some ways more immediately so than he of Grass himself.

[Guest Cover of Darkness]

"To His Coy Mistress" by... Marvell I believe sums up my love life.

[snuffbox 0]

I like to see that Wordsworth is getting some respect.

 

Also, some of my other favorites - Allen Ginsburg, Ralph Wadlow Emerson, Robert Frost, Bob Dylan, Billy Corgan, and a friend of mine named Mandy. All are/were awesome

[nl5xsk1 0]

Charles Bukowski is decidedly my all-time favorite. I was convinced my poetry was truly great and original until I picked up Bone Palace Ballet. I then wrote a rather Bukowski-ish poem titled "Fuck Bukowski", but that's neither here nor there.

 

I also think the entire group of Beat artists is terribly overrated. Granted, On The Road is a classic, but the rest of Keroauc's spontaneous prose comes off as masturbatory more often than not, and Ginsberg was more lucky than good - "Howl" and "Kaddish" are epic, as is "Moloch", but anything less sprawling suffers from his style, or lack thereof. I doubt any of us would know his name, except the rest of the country was on drugs as well when he got started.

 

K.

One agreement, one disagreement ...

 

Bukowski, indeed, rules all. I've managed to collect most of his writings (rereleases and compilations, obviously) and find that he's one of the few writers that I can read again, and again, and again, and again, and not get sick of. I have noticed, though, that a lot of the people that I've recommended him to have not necessarily dug him as much. Still, though, if someone hasn't read anything by Bukowski, I'd definitely recommend giving him a shot.

 

And while I do think that most of the beats are overrated (Kerouac and Ginsberg especially) I am a fan of Burroughs. Junky is an awesome book, better than anything by JK or AG. But, I guess that I'm not a fan of Burroughs' poetry, which is what the original question was, so I might be off-track with this response.

[Angel_Grace_Blue 0]

Billy Collins is a tremendously deserving poet laureate. He strikes the perfect balance of pathos and bathos. I'll also second Bukowski for being interesting, though living in a dorm full of hippies has left me a bit overexposed.

 

I really dig the early Romantics - Wordsworth circa "Tintern Abbey," Coleridge circa "Kubla Khan." They were doing wonderfully hallucinatory stuff that remains better than anything Walt Whitman did a few years later. Alexander Pope is tremendous fun if you're into older stuff - I remain convinced that even the most casual literary aficionado can get a kick out of "The Rape of the Lock" and its bizarre toilet humor.

 

I also mark for all things Modernist and will go to bat for the imagery of the rare Joyce poem and Ezra Pound, even if it is dense, imagistic, and overly pretentious. When you're the first guy doing it, though, you get a bit of latitude.

I agree with your thoughts on the Romantics, Eddy Mac. I like Byron's "English Bards and Scotch Reviews" as well, partly because it's mentioned in Tom Stoppard's play "Arcadia" but, I like it by itself.

 

I do like the Coleridge, too. Why can't I build a pleasure dome? It's not fair.

 

I could be wrong on the name, but I think another Romantic I like is William Blake.

 

I thank my current AP English teacher for the poetry sets we get every few weeks. I've been introduced to so many of the people I've mentioned through this.

[Kaertos 0]

The only poet I have a collection of is Robert Frost, and I keep it at my desk at home for when I need a little guidance and inspiration. Much better than a picture of a lighthouse that says "Inspiration" underneath it. I could read Frost everyday. The imagery, the lyrical rhythm... I love it.

 

here at work I keep certain poems hanging on a file cabinet for when I need a little boost. The collection:

- Ulysses by Lord Alfred Tennyson - I appreciate this more and more the older I get. Some days, just reading the last stanza is enough to give me goosebumps.

- Game Called by Grantland Rice - I quoted this in a promo I wrote in the SWF. I love this, and my wife knows that, were something to happen, this is to be read at my funeral.

- Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening - I disagreed with my AP English teacher many years ago when he said this was about death. I thought it was about responisbility, but the older I get...

- The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost - I love the irony of this poem. It is often quoted as being about non-conformity, but a close reading, at least to me, tells of the false choices you can fool yourself into by thinking you are doing something daring and different.

- Nothing Gold Can Stay by (you guessed it) Robert Frost - This is a reminder to me that all things pass, and all things, good or bad or indifferent, end.

[godthedog 0]

Billy Collins is a tremendously deserving poet laureate.  He strikes the perfect balance of pathos and bathos.  I'll also second Bukowski for being interesting, though living in a dorm full of hippies has left me a bit overexposed.

 

I really dig the early Romantics - Wordsworth circa "Tintern Abbey," Coleridge circa "Kubla Khan."  They were doing wonderfully hallucinatory stuff that remains better than anything Walt Whitman did a few years later.  Alexander Pope is tremendous fun if you're into older stuff - I remain convinced that even the most casual literary aficionado can get a kick out of "The Rape of the Lock" and its bizarre toilet humor. 

 

I also mark for all things Modernist and will go to bat for the imagery of the rare Joyce poem and Ezra Pound, even if it is dense, imagistic, and overly pretentious.  When you're the first guy doing it, though, you get a bit of latitude.

educate me on joyce's poetry. from the way he wrote his prose, it seems that his poetry would either blow one's mind, or fail miserably. i was always afraid it would be the latter, as he appeared to be a prose writer at heart and doing his best when adapting things from other media to prose (like poetry and drama), rather than when writing firmly within those media. the dramatic chapter of 'ulysses' profoundly affected the way i look at literature and the world around me, but the actual play he wrote, 'exiles', is pretty underwhelming.

 

topic at hand...poetry is something i can study and appreciate and examine, but the poems that have actually moved me were always far and few between, so i don't read much of it at all. most of the stuff i've studied in school i generally liked (dickinson, whitman, williams), and i've got MAD love for "the hollow men" and especially "the waste land." there's a friend of mine from drama who writes a lot of poetry, and some of that i dig. i dabble in writing it a VERY little bit, but it always makes me feel like a fraud to try to write a poem when it's something i really know jack shit about (and i'm a firm believer in ezra pound's method/credo that you need an extensive understanding of any medium you're working in).

[snuffbox 0]

Charles Bukowski is decidedly my all-time favorite. I was convinced my poetry was truly great and original until I picked up Bone Palace Ballet. I then wrote a rather Bukowski-ish poem titled "Fuck Bukowski", but that's neither here nor there.

 

I also think the entire group of Beat artists is terribly overrated. Granted, On The Road is a classic, but the rest of Keroauc's spontaneous prose comes off as masturbatory more often than not, and Ginsberg was more lucky than good - "Howl" and "Kaddish" are epic, as is "Moloch", but anything less sprawling suffers from his style, or lack thereof. I doubt any of us would know his name, except the rest of the country was on drugs as well when he got started.

 

K.

One agreement, one disagreement ...

 

Bukowski, indeed, rules all. I've managed to collect most of his writings (rereleases and compilations, obviously) and find that he's one of the few writers that I can read again, and again, and again, and again, and not get sick of. I have noticed, though, that a lot of the people that I've recommended him to have not necessarily dug him as much. Still, though, if someone hasn't read anything by Bukowski, I'd definitely recommend giving him a shot.

 

And while I do think that most of the beats are overrated (Kerouac and Ginsberg especially) I am a fan of Burroughs. Junky is an awesome book, better than anything by JK or AG. But, I guess that I'm not a fan of Burroughs' poetry, which is what the original question was, so I might be off-track with this response.

Howl>On The Road>Naked Lunch>lots and lots of other lit.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Howl has my absolute favorite line of any poem:

 

"Finished the whiskey and threw up, groaning into the bloody toilet."

 

That one line paints a whole picture for me.

[Mystery Eskimo 0]

Some of my favourites would be Seamus Heaney, Robert Lowell and John Berryman. Berryman's "Dream Songs" are a real trip.

[Guest Fire and Knives]

i dabble in writing it a VERY little bit, but it always makes me feel like a fraud to try to write a poem when it's something i really know jack shit about (and i'm a firm believer in ezra pound's method/credo that you need an extensive understanding of any medium you're working in).

I'd have to disagree with Pound here. I've been writing for years operating with only bits and pieces of poetic techniques, smatterings of some authors and decade-spanning collections of others, etc. and I feel like I've grown a great deal by simply forcing myself to evolve my writing based on what little knowledge I do have.

 

That said, though, I'd appreciate any Pound reccomendations. He's one of those authors that is on my long list of "Poets to Read" that I keep forgetting about when it comes time to go to the bookstore.

 

K.

[godthedog 0]

i dabble in writing it a VERY little bit, but it always makes me feel like a fraud to try to write a poem when it's something i really know jack shit about (and i'm a firm believer in ezra pound's method/credo that you need an extensive understanding of any medium you're working in).

I'd have to disagree with Pound here. I've been writing for years operating with only bits and pieces of poetic techniques, smatterings of some authors and decade-spanning collections of others, etc. and I feel like I've grown a great deal by simply forcing myself to evolve my writing based on what little knowledge I do have.

 

That said, though, I'd appreciate any Pound reccomendations. He's one of those authors that is on my long list of "Poets to Read" that I keep forgetting about when it comes time to go to the bookstore.

 

K.

for me, it's more of a "i don't take the time to read so much of OTHER people's stuff, yet i'll expect others to read and appreciate my work" thing. pound thought such an education was essential for good serious writing, but i think of it more as lack of reciprocation. if YOU don't read the work of your peers, you have no right to expect any reaction from them over what you've written. being a serious writer is also about being a member of a certain community, and actively participating in it. if you're writing without reading, you're not just being willfully ignorant; you're being selfish, asking the community to help you without you having to help the community.

 

i'm more familiar with pound's patronage of other modernist writers & his credos than his actual works (as i said, i don't read much poetry). he was an ENORMOUS editorial help on "the waste land", & i believe the most famous work he did on his own was the "cantos."

[Guest Fire and Knives]

I agree with you on the reciprocation point. I have several friends that write seriously, and we're usually very good about critiquing each other; I was refering to the idea of a formal education. Most of the people I know are informed primarily by the Beats, and it limits their work enormously (contrary to what they'll tell you). My own influences are different stylistically and slightly more varied, but I still recognize the limited amount of information I'm working with and I try to seek out new poetry whenever I can.

 

K.

[EricMM 0]

gimme John Donne, Chaucer, and even Wilfred Owen.

[Firestarter 0]

AE Housman, WH Auden, Seamus Heaney, Anne Sexton, May Sarton, Dorothy Parker, Edna St Vincent Millay, Henry Timrod, and far too many more to name.

 

"There is no holier spot of ground

Than where defeated valor lies,

By mourning beauty crowned."