Favorite Poets!
We asked artists who visit Poetrywithmeaning.com who their favorite poets are and why... This is what they came up with.
1: I couldn't find the "Best Poets" at your site, so I will just put mine here. So many poets. How do you pick one? I know. The one who touches you and makes you cry and gives you wonderful belly laughs and wrings every emotion you have out of you, THAT is what "Best Poets" do.
Robert Service is mine. A man the "superior" folks of that day and time thought much too rude, crude and tattooed, but the man wrote his poems and eventually made fools out of the stiff-upper-lipped ones . . . Robert Service . . . Second choice, Oscar Wilde . . .
2: just one??? nah, i could do that
Top 5:
Jimmy Santiago Baca Charles Bukowski Sandra Cisneros Gary Soto Martin Espada
3: Marie Howe. Her poems are evocative and real. They sometimes give me the chills. I highly recommend reading some of her work. It will be wholly worthwhile.
4: Baudelaire. Just the greatest ever, and I can't explain that in just a few words sorry, there is too much to say. Yes, I know, better to read him in French of course.
5: It's all about T.S. Eliot.
6: It's not fair of me to pick just one favorite...
Anne Sexton Poe Giuseppe Ungaretti Saul Williams Nicole Blackman Daphne Gottlieb
7: Rimbeaud, why you might ask?
No contrivance. The poetry was as effortless as speech, and withheld nothing through devices, seeming to discard all rules that hinder the reader, and just talking hard.
I would try to be like him, but that would in itself be against the point.
He also knew when he was done.
8: There are so many...Longfellow has been one of my favorites as long as I can remember. Others I enjoy too, I love Poe's works and Emily Dickenson as well...Robert Frost, Anne Sexton. So many more, but Longfellow is the one I find myself reading the most.
9: pablo neruda nikki giovanni
are just two names that come to mind BUT there are so many great poets out there...these are the two names that appeared as soon as my fingers hit the keyboard!
10: bukowski
11: william blake dr.seuss JIM MORRISON
12: jaime sabines - because of like memories rimbaud - because of first lines to illuminations
13: Who is the best poet? Aside from myself, who I am very fond of. : ) A few of my personal favortites are: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Arthur Rimbaugh, Walt Whitman, Rumi and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
14: Ahhh there are a few
Oscar Wilde- I know he isn't really known for his poetry and some may scoff but I like his work it touches me especially his poem Requiescat
Jim Morrison-Again not really hailed for his poetry but he touches me, sends my mind on interesting journeys and I like his perspective especially pt. 1 of An American Prayer.
Tennyson- Tithonus is my favourite, again he makes me feel something, challenges my mind and alot of his subject matter, is well, a fairy tale, and I like that.
and P.B. Shelley- I get lost in his work all the time, I can delve into a book of his poems and not emerge for many hours. Queen Mab would be my all time favourite poem of his.
15: Ahh Jim Morrison. I forgot him, how could I? I love Wilderness. He is another great. Oscar Wilde is awesome too.
16: WILLAM BLAKE--FOR HIS DEEPNESS CHARLES BAUDELAIRE--FOR WISDOM MAYA ANGELOU--FOR HER STRENGTH ANNE SEXTON--FOR HER TRUTH PABLO NERUDA--FOR HIS PASSION
17: Edgar Allen Poe - you can feel his demons while reading his words, i enjoy the creepiness.
This article was written by Bob Mortland on Feb 15, 2007 and filed under Writing.
Responses
9 comments so far.
William Blake: He had rhythm, his poems are like music...and yet the profundity of his message shines through. His message is as timeless as the Bible, his imagination boundless. He was never pretentious, and always brutally honest. I can truly say he changed my life.
"Energy is eternal delight."
My favorite poet? Debra Jo Howard...every time I hear her speak I get the urge to close my eyes and weep. I get the urge to tap my foot and breathe. But I usually find myself holding my breathe until it is over and then I realize that her words have hit me so much more profoundly than any song I have ever heard!
It seems that the question is too broad for most people, perhaps our favorite historical avant-garde and/or poet, (eg. dadaist, futurist, cubist, Surrealist, lettrist), or say, favorite American school, scene, period (eg. Beats, Romantics, 19th C., Black-Power, modernist, po-mo, feminist, slam, hip-hop, radical black lesbians, etc.), or other such delineations may help. My recent favorite new discoveries are Eugene Ostashevsky for his esoteric-punkiness, Aaron Smith for his eloquent refinement, yet fully unabashed forthrightness, Fred Moten for being a true Buddha of all the African-American diasporic lineages. Before you fault me for selecting 3 men, please read on. I went through an extended period where the only poets I read were women, mostly lesbian, because I was so sick of the macho-BS of hip-hop, guy-slam-poets and all the hipster-white-boy whiner clap-trap... But, as I've been sincerely craving alternate masculinities, these 3 gents couldn't be more different from one another, nor offer any greater resistance from the oppressive quotidian hegemony in their unique parallelogrammatic poetry of resistance.
-merci.
meAΩ
Alexandra Johnson of Florence, Alabama is my favorite poet and a great personal friend. Her writings are from her heart, as in the title of her book "More Than Just Words". What she writes is more than just words for sure. If you haven't read her work, you're missing out on some excellent reading. It's an honor and a priveledge to vote for as My Favorite Poet.
Adam
This might sound very typical but i love and worship the work of my idol mr Edger allen Poe
he is and always will be a great poet hes deep and very real and hes very dark thats what I like to write about .
Demetri
I'm a Silvia Plath and Steven Crane fan myself. I know so typical. But they both have wonderful styles both of which i enjoy very much.
Jaclyn
I love Saull Williams Nikki Giovanni and William Carlos Williams
You gotta give some credit to dylan thomas he's amazing
so many of the classics but my favorite modern poets are Dodinsky and Tom Sproule