Poetry Month List

Well, we're a week into National Poetry Month. Duluth has already had one major reading involving three local titans of verse with several more events on the horizon. After asking around, I put together a meager list to help start people off on their celebrations of poetry. Please add your favorites and any poets or titles that I've missed!

Poets on Poetry:

Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry by Jane Hirshfield. I think Hirshfield does one of the best jobs of accounting for the mystical experience and discipline involved in the creation of poetry without loosing sight of the matters of form and craft.

Poetry Anthology:

Rainbow Darkness ed. Keith Tuma. I am particularly attracted to this collection because I was at the Marjorie Cook Conference on Diversity in African American Poetry. This collection captures the spirit and energy of that week and is a wonderful sampler for those interested contemporary African American poets.

Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century ed. Michael Dumanis & Cate Marvin. If you want to know who the next big names in poetry are going to be, I suggest that you page through this anthology. It is just over a year old and several of the poets are already adding to their success. Each poet is amply represented with a picture, bio and several pages of poetry giving the reader a good feel for the poet’s works and directions to discover more (without paging to the back and searching through small print).

Poets (an incomplete list in no particular order):

James Wright. Ok, he’s listed first on my list because he is my most consistent favorite. I love how he is able to combine imagery with epiphany without coming off as overly romantic. “A Blessing” and “Jerome in Solitude” are two of my favorite poems of all time.

Pablo Neruda. If you’re looking to introduce someone to the power of poetry, Neruda is a very good poet to go to first. Simple, beautiful images, the respect and reflection of ode, the complexity of turbulent politics… each reading will reward the reader with new insight. If you’re interested in Spanish-language poets, I also highly recommend Octavio Paz and Federico Garcia Lorca.

Marianne Moore. Moore is one of the most influential women in poetry. She is most famous for her numerous poems on natural subjects, but the value of her poems goes much further into the heightened attention to details, image, meter and specific word choices (which sometimes necessitate a dictionary on hand, but more than worth the extra effort).

Terrance Hayes. A younger poet now teaching in Pittsburgh, Hayes has great breadth to his work – relationships, racial experience, humor, sensuality… he’s very much at home no matter the specific form or topic he’s covering. Wind in a Box is one of the best collections of poetry I’ve read this last year.

Robert Creeley. Not a beatnik, not anti-beatnik. Creeley has wonderful sense of voice in his poems and a very unique and sparse rhythm. His poems are experiences; confessions that call us to care more about the act of confession that the confessor. Recently departed and greatly missed for his continuous contributions to the greater poetry community.

Richard Siken. A poet whose works are very influenced by visual media, his poems are fast paced, visceral and always searching loves stories. Crush was the Yale Series of Younger Poets 2004 winner.

Harryette Mullen. Mullen is a great poet for every language lover out there. Not a “language poet” per se, Mullen is very experimental and her word play is fascinating as well as compelling. Recyclopedia compiles several of her books and is a wonderful introduction to her work.

Russell Edson and Louis Jenkins. If you are at all interested in the world of prose poetry, you owe it to yourself to check out both of these poets who specialize in the form. Witty, absurd, unexpectedly cathartic and always entertaining – Edson and Jenkins will both open new doors for those interested in poetry, story telling and the possibilities of the imagination.

Recommended by My Poetry Friends

Denise Levertov, Mark Yakich, Tony Hoagland, John Berryman, Dean Young, Shel Silverstein, Richard Brautigan, Fanny Howe, W.S. Merwin, Elizabeth Bishop, Wislawa Szymborska, Edward Hirsch, Geoffrey Squires, Nathaniel Mackey, Juliana Spahr, Jennifer Knox, and many others. (Not all of these poets are currently available, but they are all worth tracking down!)

I apologize for the utter inadequacy of this list but hope that one recommendation may help lead you to a poet who will impact your day, week, life as much as these (and many more) have done for me.

Remember to support your local poets as they help keep the energy of language and art alive and vibrant. This list only mentions one local poet, due to his work in an underappreciated form. The Twin Ports, and the greater MN/WI region, boasts many highly skilled, creative, attentive wordsmiths.