Name your three favorite poets and tell us why.
Madison Richards:
Poetry is like string theory: tiny strands of energy vibrating in a multitude of ways, like a grand symphony of words that satisfies the deep questions of life, even if on the surface we don't exactly understand its meaning.
For me, the winners are:
1. Robert Frost
2. Emily Dickinson
3. King David (His son Solomon wasn't so bad either)
As you've likely guessed, my taste in poetry runs parallel to my taste in writing. There are a lot of poets I read and appreciate; a lot of styles I love to get a taste of every so often. But when I really want to feed my soul and nourish my spirit, I reach for the realists.
I love poets who are in touch with humanity's weakness in light of God's strength - who tell it like it is, but do so in a way that ignites my passions and leaves me breathless. There are dozens, surely, who accomplish this task with excellence. But alas, I was limited to three, so I decided to choose based on the poets whose writing is a part of my personal collection, whose pages are dog-eared, tea-stained, and more often than not, tear-stained. Those are true favorites. True loves. True friends.
Website: www.madisonrichards.com Blog: http://writeonedge.blogspot.com
In chronological order:
Archilochus, not for abandoning his shield, but for writing about it.
Sir Philip Sidney for his sonnet sequence and the probably apocryphal tales of his death (both versions).
Constantine Cavafy for his ability to inhabit the past.
Since I write for kids, I'll mention children's writers. Shel Silverstein had a fantastic sense of humor and wild imagination, and his books are so much fun. For the same reason, I like Jack Prelutzky. And of course, who doesn't remember reading Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss? Lisa Wheeler and Jane Yolen are also wonderful poets, writing both lighthearted and more serious poems. Blog: http://www.donnashepherd.com
Billy Collins
Shel Silverstein
Langston Hughes
For me, reading poetry is like getting part of a peanut butter sandwich stuck to the roof of my mouth. I get a little panicky, my eyes water, and the harder I strive to ‘get it’, the more frustrated and frantic I become.
I don’t mean to, but I just figure everyone who sits down to write poetry is just way smarter than me. I just sort of assume I won’t really get it (and that people will be laughing at me behind my back!) I do like when stuff rhymes though.
Also, I recently purchased a thick book of Emily Dickenson poems (which I think will be way better than Angie Dickenson’s stuff) and Good Poems, compiled and edited by Garrison Keillor. So there! www.snyderman.blogspot.com
One is my friend Suzanne Deshchidn who used to be a part of our Master’s Artist community. She writes narratively, which I love, and her images stay with me for a really long time. You can meet her at http://siouxsiepoetuncensored.blogspot.com/. My father was a poet, quite a good one, and when I read his stuff, I’m terribly humbled. He’s no longer living, but his words still haunt me. And I love Robert Frost because he writes with non-fluffy imagery. www.relevantblog.blogspot.com www.marydemuth.com
1. My husband, Ethan Martin. No really – don't stop reading here. I'm not going to write anything gross. But when I came across his poetry before he and I met, I knew I had to meet the man behind the words. I did, and look where that led.
2. "Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all," Emily Dickinson
I love Dickinson because she could fit an entire world into just a few lines
3. I had a hard time narrowing it down to three, so I stopped with my favorite two.
Tupac Shakur- Does Heaven Have a Ghetto (you might get hate mail on this one.)
Langston Hughes- Life Ain't No Crystal Stair
Nikki Giovanni- Phenomenal Women
http://christianfiction.blogspot.com
Englishman, John Hegley is my top poet. The Guardian describes him as "one of Britain's most popular poets, standing out for a wry sense of humour sometimes described as quintessentially 'English'." What does he do? The Guardian again: "[he is] a very popular figure on the comedy circuit, he's a musician, and somebody who is ready to entertain children as adults." In other words he is everything I would aspire to be. Here is a poem I dedicated to John Hegley. I hope it captures some of both his essence and my aspirations.
Join I the ones who write the
Odes of pure delight and set the
Heady heights I'd like to reach.
Nerdy laureate. Bespectacled purveyor of poem. Dog owner?
Healed by verse of dazzling wit, I was
Entranced by your wordplay, and my
Glasses steamed at the naughty bits.
Lord, you made be cry
Even while I was laughing.
You're my favourite guy.
I also love William Carlos Williams because he wrote my favourite short poem, The Red Wheelbarrow. I love how the words are set out. I love the ordinariness of the words. I love how its simplicity can permit us in to something grand as poetry.
And while I love poems that are accessible and visceral, I have also found treasures in the poets such as Wallace Stevens. The poems make me work harder to unpick their sense. But when I am able to do this, deep meaning has emerged out of the complexity, just as it did for Wallace Stevens in Key West when the chaos of "lights in the fishing boats at anchor there...Mastered the night and portioned out the sea" (The Idea of Order at Key West). Apparently atheistic in philosophy, Stevens did leave me with a notion of jazz as the music of choice in heaven; a place that can contain our ugliness as well as our dynamism with "our bawdiness... converted into palms/Squiggling like saxophones".
1. Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill - a contemporary Irish language poet who has been translated in numerous other languages. She was the first Irish language poet I had read who writes candidly about sexuality and wild femininity. She has a beautiful love poem in honour of her husband's naked body which has the wonderful line ' there you stand in nothing but your pelt and wrist watch.' Most of the Irish language stuff you get exposed to in school and college is obsessed with Ireland and the language itself. It's political and land locked. Nuala opened up a whole new world to the language but has so flummoxed scholars that when I studied Irish language poetry at college, the elderly lecturer didn't really know how to handle her work and we only spent a week discussing her.
2. Eavan Boland - another contemporary Irish poet who writes in the English language and who made me realise that the domestic sphere has as much validity for poetry as grand epic subjects.
3. W. B. Yeats - I have a love/hate relationship with Yeats. There's no doubt he's pure wonderful and a master with the poetry but he's an awful pretentious gobshite as well. His later poems where he bemoans the aging process make me want to tell him to shut up and his ridiculous early obsession with Maud Gonne and Ireland as some pure rural idyll make me want to puke. But if only for his beautiful poem 'He wishes for the cloths of heaven' he's got to be in my top three.
Jeanne Damoff:
I love poetry, and I'm particularly fond of poetry with form. I realize "free verse" is all the rage these days, and some publications won't even accept rhyming poetry submissions. I could say a lot about that, but this isn't supposed to be a rant, so I'll refrain. Suffice to say, as far as I'm concerned, arranging prose in a pretty pattern on the page doesn't make it poetry, nor does stringing together an abstruse combination of words that pretend profundity. If there's no music--no cadence or pulse--nothing to please the ear, I may find it provocative, but I won't call it poetry.
That said, my poet choices shouldn't surprise you.
Let's start with A. A. Milne, who originally composed his delightful verse for his son, Christopher Robin (yes, THE Christopher Robin), to the great gain of millions of other children and adults. I could tell you why I love Milne, but I'd rather let his poetry speak for itself. Here's a favorite (best read aloud).
Disobedience
James James
Morrison Morrison
Weatherby George Dupree
Took great
Care of his Mother,
Though he was only three.
James James
Said to his Mother,
"Mother," he said, said he:
"You must never go down to the end of the town,
if you don't go down with me."
James James
Morrison's Mother
Put on a golden gown,
James James
Morrison's Mother
Drove to the end of the town.
James James
Morrison's Mother
Said to herself, said she:
"I can get right down to the end of the town
and be back in time for tea."
King John
Put up a notice,
"LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
JAMES JAMES
MORRISON'S MOTHER
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
LAST SEEN
WANDERING VAGUELY:
QUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN TO THE END OF THE TOWN--
FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!"
James James
Morrison Morrison
(Commonly known as Jim)
Told his
Other relations
Not to go blaming him.
James James
Said to his Mother,
"Mother," he said, said he:
"You must never go down to the end of the town
without consulting me."
James James
Morrison's Mother
Hasn't been heard of since.
King John
Said he was sorry,
So did the Queen and Prince.
King John
(Somebody told me)
Said to a man he knew:
"If people go down to the end of the town,
well, what can anyone do?"
(Now then, very softly)
J. J.
M. M.
W. G. Du P.
Took great
C/o his M*****
Though he was only 3.
J. J.
Said to his M*****
"M*****," he said, said he:
"You-must-never-go-down-to-the-end-of-the-town-
if-you-don't-go-down-with ME!"
For my second choice I'm going with Amy Carmichael. Some people may find her use of King Jamesy English quaint, but for depth of thought and beautiful imagery, she will always be a favorite. A sample:
No Scar?
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who has nor wound nor scar?
Since George and I are both poet musicians, and we begat three children after our kind, I could have easily kept my choices all in the family. However, I decided to keep the nepotism to a minimum. (You're welcome.) I've always believed our son, Luke, has a gift, so I'm not surprised when others recognize it, too. At Wheaton, Nicole Mazzarella was his English professor. After the first poetry assignment, she called him into her office and asked to see any other poetry he'd written. After reading several samples, she offered to mentor him toward publication. My male protagonist in my first novel is a poet, and the pieces I include in the book were all composed by Luke. Here's one of them:
the breaking waiting peace
leave these shattered pieces
on the floor, do not sweep them
into a little pile, and toss them into
the dustbin by the door. let them
lie, like sleeping children
waiting to awake at the next day’s
dawning—tired faerie children,
yawning, stretching, coalescing
into tired faerie elders.
let these shattered pieces lie,
remind yourself with tears why it is they broke,
but leave them there. i know a carpenter
kind and fair, who can repair anything,
though you will not recognize it
when all is said and done.
Okay, so the question didn't ask for samples. But it did ask for "why," and I can't think of a better way to illustrate what I love about a poet's work than to give you a chance to read it aloud. Great poetry is a feast of thought and sound. Let your tongue serve the words, your ear savor them, and your soul be satisfied.
I'm not a big fan of poetry. My favorites are an eclectic bunch:
George Herbert
T. S. Elliot
Chaucer
Dante
Milton
Shakespeare
Fo course, the last four tell really stories in poetry form, so that's probably why I like them.
Becky
Posted by: Rebecca LuElla Miller | March 31, 2008 at 01:43 PM
Hmmm, difficult to narrow it down to only three.
1. Robert Frost, because he is a modern writer who worked in traditional forms, and did it so well. His attention to detail is incredible. He found ways to use formal poetry to enhance his creativity.
2. Edna St. Vincent Millay, for the same reason.
3. John Milton, because he is perhaps the transitional poet from middle English to modern English, and because I don't understand much of what he wrote but feel that I should.
Posted by: David Todd | March 31, 2008 at 02:15 PM
Not a huge poetry nut but lately I've been trying to heed Fitzgerald's advice by reading some. I really like Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot and a lot of what is published by Relief.
Posted by: Nathan Knapp | March 31, 2008 at 04:37 PM
It's all in the words and the message for me. It also helps if I can understand what the words are saying. I will say now that I am coming to realize I am not your stereotypical writer type who read all of these great and classical poets simply to enrich my mental list of classical readings. (If that made a bit of sense). Anyway, I said all this to say that much of my "real" appreciation for poetry did not make an appearance until my college classes when we had to analyze the poor things to death. I will not analyze them but I will name a few that caught my fancy. They are:
1) The collected works of Emily Dickenson - Why? Because sometimes I feel like her, questioning life and love from my window, sitting on the outside looking in. I always felt it was such a shame that her beautiful works were not found or appreciated until after she passed. I can only pray that the same will not happen to mine.
2) Maya Angelou - because I just do. And sometimes that's all there is to it.
3) And last but certainly not least, the late great George Herbert otherwise known as the "Preacher Poet". He may have lived in the 16th Century but his faith was evident in his prose. My favorite is his poem "The Windows" in which he compares the stained glass windows of his church to man and his eternal struggle to remain in God's light. Well, I'll let him tell you.
The Windows
by George Herbert
Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?
He is brittle, crazy glass
Yet in thy temple though dost afford
This glorious and transcendent place
to be a window through thy grace.
But when thou dost anneal in glass thy story,
Making thy life to shine within,
The holy preachers, then the light and glory
More reverend grows, and more doth win,
Which else shows wat'rish, bleak, and thin.
Doctrine and life, colors and light, in one
When they combine and mingle, bring
A strong regard and awe; but speech alone
Doth vanish like a flaring thing,
And in the ear, not conscience, ring.
I can practically picture him on his knees praying for God to keep him humble in his eyes. I had the privilege and opportunity to recite this poem in front of my English Literature class for bonus points one hot sticky summer and I have to say I was more invested in the words than in the grade (which I did receive with highest marks). ^_^
Posted by: ddjohnson | April 01, 2008 at 11:28 AM
Mary Oliver
Billy Collins
eecummings
Posted by: christa Allan | April 01, 2008 at 05:47 PM
Great question! Some of the best in contemporary poetry:
John Hodgen (Check out Grace)
Jorie Graham
Billy Collins
Louise Gluck
Linda Pastan
Daisy Fried
I also love Mary Oliver. Her nature-based poetry reflects the purity of her spirit. I hope you enjoy these recommendations!
Posted by: Marla Alupoaicei | April 07, 2008 at 09:58 PM
William Cullen Bryant --Because 'Thanatopsis' rocks. It was the first poem I can remember ever hearing quoted, by my father. 'A Forest Hymn' is also quite excellent.
David Bottoms --A contemporary U.S. poet, from right here in Georgia. "Under the Vulture Tree" is my favorite poem of all time.
Shel Silverstein --Because his poems bring me joy.
Posted by: Crotalus | April 07, 2008 at 10:07 PM