posted
I'm taking a class in Contemporary American Poetry and my last paper of the class has to be on a contemporary poet. The criteria are that he/she must be currently publishing and nationally known. The professor is leaving it completely up to us to find someone whose poetry we enjoy and in her words "go discover someone new."
Thing is, I don't read contemporary poetry. I love poetry, but spend most of my time reading the poetry of dead people. So I ask the Hatrack nation - who do you like, and why?
If you're wondering what my taste is, so you can help match me up with a poet I will enjoy studying, I love everything from Shakespearean sonnets to Robert Frost. So really, the field is wide open. If you have a favorite and can recommend a book of his/her works, that would be awesome, or even better if you could link me to a sample somewhere on the interwebs. Please do not copy poems in their entirety here, in accordance with the TOS and out of respect of copyright laws.
Thank you Hatrack, I bow to your wealth of knowledge. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Just to get it off my chest, I HATE POETRY!!!!
OK, I feel better. Now let me explain.
As a young boy in school, I absolutely hated poetry. It didn't make sense to me and it was never able to hold my attention the way prose would.
That being said, I love seeing and hearing poetry performed. Taking the words from the page and making them into a performance somehow brings me into the poem more than reading it myself has been able to do.
So now, I LIKE POETRY AS PERFORMANCE!
So I have two for you. One is Rives, who I only know from YouTube. I don't know if he publishes, but his slam poetry is awesome!
The second is a former professor of mine, Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon. She is an absolutely incredible performer, and her poems are much more close to stories and monologues than what I would think of us poetry.
Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Leonard Cohen the Canadian singer/ songwriter writes some of the most beautiful poetry I have ever read. He doesn't quite fit your criteria since he's not American but I would recommend checking it out either way.
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I thought of several poets when I read the thread title.
..but then I see you want them to still be alive now so that cancels all the ones I was going to suggest..
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Charles Simic is a favorite of mine. I once had the opportunity to hear him do readings from one of his books, Walking the Black Cat some years ago (okay, nine years ago. I was a senior in high school. That was NINE YEAR AGO!?)
Ahem. Anyway, the reading was great and he's actually the poet laureate this year. I read that somewhere at some point within the last couple of months.
I have the book I got at the reading (he signed it and all) and I think I took notes in it during the reading. I'll have to find it. It's here... somewhere.
Really. I have a fantastic memory and am very, very organized.
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Bradley Hathaway- self-deprecating Christian emo. I find that a funny combination. Just google his name- you'll find his stuff on YouTube and his website and stuff.
Posts: 980 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote: Contemporary American Poetry American poetry from 1945-present
sidenote: I'll almost bet money I have the "textbook" you are using for that class. My son had to take a course with almost that specific name and date range...
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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You're probably studying him, though. I heard him read at NCTE 2005 and he was just absolutely amazing.
I like Simic a lot, too.
I read a lot of anthologies, so many of my recommendations are based on a few poems, rather than entire books. I also tend to gravitate toward female poets, so here goes:
Sharon Olds, particularly the collection The Father (about her father's death from throat cancer)--very powerful. There's one about her running through the airport which is very memorable. (Well, except for the title, which I have forgotten.) These poemsaren't from that collection, but they are 2 more that I really like.
Maxine Kumin wins just for " Woodchucks" ("Gassing the woodchucks didn't turn out right")
Linda Pastan
Lucille Clifton--I LOVE "Homage to My Hips" and "At Last We Killed the Roaches" and "Sisters"
And one more guy; Peter Meinke-- "Elegy for a Diver" is one of my all-time favorite poems, and has been since I was 18.
As far as I've been able to tell with an extremely cursory internet search, the above are all still living. Enjoy the course!
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street and How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents (and many others, but I think those are two of her best-known books-- and those are pretty poetical, at that! She often straddles the line between poetry and prose in her novels) also has two fantastic volumes of poetry (I thought so anyway), My Wicked Wicked Ways and Loose Woman: Poems.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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(Upon reading the reviews attached to those books, I realize that other people may not agree with me about her poetry. But I like it very much. )
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Too many favorites to list, but I will say that you should definitely supplement the more conventional modern poets with, say, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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It's been a few years since I did much with the Florida Poets' Association, but I'll give this a try.
Larry Gross writes amazing poetry in general but especially haiku. He's been known to win haiku contests in Japan. Plus, he's a really nice guy who loves teaching others (like me) how to recognize when your haiku isn't.
Madelyn Eastlund I remember for her historical poems. She had one about Judas that wasn't quite a Spoon River but was all about his justification for what he did. Of course, her stuff on the site is more modern just to spite me.
My momma, Cheri Herald, doesn't seem to have any on her front page, but she's tired of contesting her stuff and usually just posts it when she's done with a piece. Of course I think she's wonderful, but she has fans on Xanga who aren't related to her, so I'm guessing she really is good.
Some of my favorites don't seem to have their stuff on the web. But if you can track down a Florida State Poets Association anthology, I recommend Todd Palmer, Bob Blenheim, and Randy Cadman.
Todd's a family man, and I remember most of his stuff focusing on that. We gave a presentation together for National that involved Florida disaster prepardness like alligator wrestling. Funny guy.
Bob likes gothic, sensual imagery that as an Anne Rice reading teenager, I lapped up like a hungry puppy. He's president of the state org these days, so he may have started doing respectable stuff. I just hope he kept the deep imagery and crazy symbols. Also, he's a great karaoke singer.
Randy's the kind of guy that brings his own lamps and pictures with him to decorate his hotel room where everyone gets together to read and drink Caroline's way-too-strong White Russians. He's the troublemaker, but he's got this poem about how "if things don't get better soon, he might have to give up drinking" that makes me about wet myself every time I hear it.
Man, I may have to go to the next convention and just enjoy seeing everyone again. I didn't realize how much I missed it.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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Drat. Charles Simic IS on the syllabus. So, he's out.
But the professor said she'll give a list with some recommendations, and that she's certain she knows some that I'll love. I've had this prof before in another class, so she knows me. What I'll do is when I get her list, I'll ask around and see which ones you guys know.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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If your poet needs to write in lines, for whatever reason, I second whoever recommended Sharon Olds above me. Mary Oliver is also a good'un.
Posts: 368 | Registered: Aug 2007
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