This lesson couldn't have come at a better time! I've recently started writing poetry seriously and, although not about love, I've picked some really good advice from here. Thanks!
I feel like that enrollee who is in the wrong class but doesn’t want to leave 😅 I hesitate to make a direct connection between what I’ve enjoyed reading and what I’m trying to write, because of the gaping distance between what those writers achieve versus what I’m struggling with almost daily. That said, I think I can at least share some poems that have made an indelible mark.
Recently, I started reading Bob Hicok’s “Words for Empty and Words for Full”; the poem “After the Procedure” brought me to my knees. The seemingly mundane task of washing apples cast against the image of a diagnosis, the palpable relief at the implied recovery, and the line “I never expected love”…. I’ll just curl up in a ball and stay on the floor, thank you.
From George Abraham’s “Birthright”, I carry these lines from his poem ““Haifa Love Letters from a Palestinian Exile”:
“i found you at
the intersection of 5 countries, horizons
bleeding into each other; here,
there is enough history
for the both of us”
I’ve loved poetry too by Jessica Helen Lopez, Natalie Diaz, and Ocean Vuong. Among the earliest love poems I read though, I’m still haunted by Rainier Maria Rilke’s “You who Never Arrived”:
Shannon, thank you so much for your passion and generosity, sharing your thoughts and willing us all to succeed, or perhaps just flourish. Thank you. I am starting my canon today.
Natalie Diaz for her lexicon and how far she can take an image. Ellen Bass for her ability to take a moment in time y spin it into something interesting y that she also writes about the reality of long love. See “Marriage”. Donika Kelly for her imagery and metaphors.
Kaveh Akbar is a big one in my personal canon. I'm blown away by all aspects of his work, but I especially connect with how he talks about faith. I also love Chen Chen, especially for his humor and incisive observations. "I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party" was one of my favorite poems I read last year. Richard Siken is incredible as well. His poems are so emotionally-charged and brimming with tension, and the imagery is so rich.
I also want to second everyone who has mentioned Megan Fernandes! I just recently read I Do Everything I'm Told and loved the city sonnet sequence.
Elisa Gabbert is one of those "wildcard" poets for me. I wouldn't say I *enjoyed* reading Normal Distance, per se, but it truly LIVES in my head. Her voice and her formal choices are so unique. I'm always going back to those poems to try to tease them apart.
I love the idea of organizing a personal cannon. Here’s some of my thoughts
Aria Arber - specifically Dirt and Light. I find the lost love, other loves and civil life compelling. And I find it generative in my own writing.
Bianca Stone - just embodies the poet's life and Vermont. I love her Ode & Psyche podcast.
Victoria Chang - I loved Obits and I’m getting into s.
Stanley Plumly - In Passing. I like how it juxtaposes death and sex, kitch and art, the lover and beloved.
Anne Sexton - “My friend, my friend I was born doing reference work in sin and confessing it. That is what poems are” Yes!
Wallace Stevens - I like his high rhetorical style and his quest on how to fill the void now that God is dead. Two favorites are Sunday Morning and the Idea of Order at Key West.
AGNI and Missouri Review are favorite lit mags for new poems.
I'm a fiction writer just dipping a toe into the world of poetry, so my canon is still a work in progress, but here are some favourites:
1 - Richard Siken. (with an emphasis on "Crush") I love his intensity, the frantic, obsessive pace of each poem, how he's able to use structure to mirror the feelings he's trying to evoke. My absolute favourite - if anyone has any similar recommendations, I would lovelovelove to hear them.
2 - Dorianne Laux. Sensual, intense, with imagery that hit very close to home for me
3 - Louise Glück. Love her for similar reasons - her ability to depict trauma, desire, and often complicated events/emotions
4 - Kim Addonizio. A hit/miss for me, as some poems feel a bit too simplistic for my liking, but I absolutely adore the way she writes about sex/desire, with this raw heat that feels very realistic
5 - Emily Skaja. This is a newer find for me, but I greatly enjoyed "Brute" - I usually get bored with nature / animals as metaphor but she kept it fresh and interesting
1) chen chen. what's not to love about gay? his writing is ridiculously whimsical in a way that fawns and frowns against the sexual world.
2) jack gilbert. his melancholic tone is a "mournful hope?" it feels both nihilistic and nurturing at the same time.
3) abby johnson. i read her chap "opportunity cost" which had evocative language and musings centered on assault, navigating the (im)personal and rift of mind.
I'm still new to poetry and only started building a canon today. I've noticed that a lot of the love poetry I like deals with male dominance and/or violence or generally aren't very lovey or sexy.
So far I've got
1. Taylor Byas for the way she plays with form and how her poems feel like little novies.
2. Amanda Hope for how she superimposes the mundane with personal experiences
3. Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose for the way she interweaves the fantastical and also for openly approaching topics like postcoital sadness (in Tristesse)
4. From the "classics" I think I could learn from Pablo Neruda's obsessiveness and surrealism
surrealism
5. Kamala Das for the way images are repeated to become visceral symbols
It's amazing how we can observe these things in our own modes of thinking as we start figuring out our personal canons. Love your list here -- Taylor Byas is doing some great things
Thank you, Shannan. Unfortunately I dropped out of the course in week 1 but I look forward to reviewing everything some time later this year! Thanks so much for sharing your insights and passion with us!
Yes, there is a sexy history between the two. So much has been written of it that it is quite hard to be original when it comes to any writing of it. Good read!
I’m just building a canon of poets. I enjoy Ted Kooser, his ‘5 PM’, ‘A Letter’ and ‘Sparklers’ by intimating what his characters mean or are thinking. His surreal allusions in
‘Sparklers’ – ‘I scratched your name in longhand on the night…’ Louise Gluck’s ‘The White Lilies’ also makes surreal allusions – ‘…make a garden between them like a bed of stars…’; While ‘From A Journal ’relates the melancholy of loss – ‘…to have lost any chance of actually knowing you or remembering you over time as a real person…’; and again with a surreal reference: Mary Oliver’s ‘I know Someone’ – ‘I know someone who kisses the way a flower opens, but more rapidly.’ I often revisit e.e. cummings’ ‘new she was’ for the way he used pacing and metaphor to express physical interaction. (See how I skipped around fucking).
I’ve not had many poems published, but Longing and Singing both reach into the melancholy of lost or unrealized love.
Ah thank you so much for reminding of that Kooser line, and all those poems in fact. Mary Oliver of course is the gold standard for so many poets. Love the poems you've shared too!
Olivia Gatwood for her wit and boldness in metaphor. Megan Fernandes for these same reasons. Eileen Myles for their punchiness, how sex and love is treated like a well-worn afterthought woven into everyday humanity. Ada Limon for her starkly rendered joy and pain.
I'd heard of all the other poets you named but Gatwood is new to me. Really enjoying what I've seen online! I recently read Megan Fernandes' Good Boys and my copy's full of underlines
Jack Gilbert for how he grieves lost love and for how he uses imagery and metaphor. Dorianne Laux for how she chooses just the right raw details. Mary Meriam for her use of meter and rhyme, especially in sonnets. Of course all three of these poets do many things well..
So hard to choose. Mary Oliver for showing me how to pay particular and specific attention, a practice that has decoded my world. Emily Dickinson for her passion and intensity, and for making the anchorite life cool. Leonard Cohen is the poet of my soul and Patti Smith speaks the language of my gut.
This lesson couldn't have come at a better time! I've recently started writing poetry seriously and, although not about love, I've picked some really good advice from here. Thanks!
I feel like that enrollee who is in the wrong class but doesn’t want to leave 😅 I hesitate to make a direct connection between what I’ve enjoyed reading and what I’m trying to write, because of the gaping distance between what those writers achieve versus what I’m struggling with almost daily. That said, I think I can at least share some poems that have made an indelible mark.
Recently, I started reading Bob Hicok’s “Words for Empty and Words for Full”; the poem “After the Procedure” brought me to my knees. The seemingly mundane task of washing apples cast against the image of a diagnosis, the palpable relief at the implied recovery, and the line “I never expected love”…. I’ll just curl up in a ball and stay on the floor, thank you.
From George Abraham’s “Birthright”, I carry these lines from his poem ““Haifa Love Letters from a Palestinian Exile”:
“i found you at
the intersection of 5 countries, horizons
bleeding into each other; here,
there is enough history
for the both of us”
I’ve loved poetry too by Jessica Helen Lopez, Natalie Diaz, and Ocean Vuong. Among the earliest love poems I read though, I’m still haunted by Rainier Maria Rilke’s “You who Never Arrived”:
“All the immense
images in me…
all rise within me to mean
you, who forever elude me.”
Late to the game here, but some of my favorite love poems are:
"Making Love to Myself" by James L. White (https://www.poemist.com/james-l-white/making-love-to-myself)
"New York Address" by Linda Gregg (https://themillions.com/2023/11/the-sublime-poetics-of-linda-gregg.html)
"Terrible Music" by Chessy Normile (https://poems.com/poem/terrible-music/)
Favorite poets who write frequently about love and sex are Sharon Oldz, Anne Carson, Eileen Myles, Diane Seuss, Jay Deshpande, and many others!
Shannon, thank you so much for your passion and generosity, sharing your thoughts and willing us all to succeed, or perhaps just flourish. Thank you. I am starting my canon today.
Yes. I learned that poem from Modpo too. 😁
Natalie Diaz for her lexicon and how far she can take an image. Ellen Bass for her ability to take a moment in time y spin it into something interesting y that she also writes about the reality of long love. See “Marriage”. Donika Kelly for her imagery and metaphors.
Kaveh Akbar is a big one in my personal canon. I'm blown away by all aspects of his work, but I especially connect with how he talks about faith. I also love Chen Chen, especially for his humor and incisive observations. "I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party" was one of my favorite poems I read last year. Richard Siken is incredible as well. His poems are so emotionally-charged and brimming with tension, and the imagery is so rich.
I also want to second everyone who has mentioned Megan Fernandes! I just recently read I Do Everything I'm Told and loved the city sonnet sequence.
Elisa Gabbert is one of those "wildcard" poets for me. I wouldn't say I *enjoyed* reading Normal Distance, per se, but it truly LIVES in my head. Her voice and her formal choices are so unique. I'm always going back to those poems to try to tease them apart.
Yes to Chen Chen. And love his voice. And yes to Megan Fernandez. I took a great class with her on rhythm and beat. Mind-blowing.
I love the idea of organizing a personal cannon. Here’s some of my thoughts
Aria Arber - specifically Dirt and Light. I find the lost love, other loves and civil life compelling. And I find it generative in my own writing.
Bianca Stone - just embodies the poet's life and Vermont. I love her Ode & Psyche podcast.
Victoria Chang - I loved Obits and I’m getting into s.
Stanley Plumly - In Passing. I like how it juxtaposes death and sex, kitch and art, the lover and beloved.
Anne Sexton - “My friend, my friend I was born doing reference work in sin and confessing it. That is what poems are” Yes!
Wallace Stevens - I like his high rhetorical style and his quest on how to fill the void now that God is dead. Two favorites are Sunday Morning and the Idea of Order at Key West.
AGNI and Missouri Review are favorite lit mags for new poems.
You have some of my absolute favorites here, Dave. Aria Aber especially is doing wonderful things
I'm a fiction writer just dipping a toe into the world of poetry, so my canon is still a work in progress, but here are some favourites:
1 - Richard Siken. (with an emphasis on "Crush") I love his intensity, the frantic, obsessive pace of each poem, how he's able to use structure to mirror the feelings he's trying to evoke. My absolute favourite - if anyone has any similar recommendations, I would lovelovelove to hear them.
2 - Dorianne Laux. Sensual, intense, with imagery that hit very close to home for me
3 - Louise Glück. Love her for similar reasons - her ability to depict trauma, desire, and often complicated events/emotions
4 - Kim Addonizio. A hit/miss for me, as some poems feel a bit too simplistic for my liking, but I absolutely adore the way she writes about sex/desire, with this raw heat that feels very realistic
5 - Emily Skaja. This is a newer find for me, but I greatly enjoyed "Brute" - I usually get bored with nature / animals as metaphor but she kept it fresh and interesting
I loved "Brute" too. And I'll have to check out Siken. Glück is always fabulous. Laux and Addonizio less so but still often very good. Thank you!
I LOVE when I hear about new poets from people's personal canons and faves. Really enjoyed Emily Skaja, Olesya.
Canon list:
1) chen chen. what's not to love about gay? his writing is ridiculously whimsical in a way that fawns and frowns against the sexual world.
2) jack gilbert. his melancholic tone is a "mournful hope?" it feels both nihilistic and nurturing at the same time.
3) abby johnson. i read her chap "opportunity cost" which had evocative language and musings centered on assault, navigating the (im)personal and rift of mind.
So on board with your assessment of Chen Chen haha :)
I'm still new to poetry and only started building a canon today. I've noticed that a lot of the love poetry I like deals with male dominance and/or violence or generally aren't very lovey or sexy.
So far I've got
1. Taylor Byas for the way she plays with form and how her poems feel like little novies.
2. Amanda Hope for how she superimposes the mundane with personal experiences
3. Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose for the way she interweaves the fantastical and also for openly approaching topics like postcoital sadness (in Tristesse)
4. From the "classics" I think I could learn from Pablo Neruda's obsessiveness and surrealism
surrealism
5. Kamala Das for the way images are repeated to become visceral symbols
It's amazing how we can observe these things in our own modes of thinking as we start figuring out our personal canons. Love your list here -- Taylor Byas is doing some great things
Thank you, Shannan. Unfortunately I dropped out of the course in week 1 but I look forward to reviewing everything some time later this year! Thanks so much for sharing your insights and passion with us!
Yes, there is a sexy history between the two. So much has been written of it that it is quite hard to be original when it comes to any writing of it. Good read!
Thanks Luis!
I’m just building a canon of poets. I enjoy Ted Kooser, his ‘5 PM’, ‘A Letter’ and ‘Sparklers’ by intimating what his characters mean or are thinking. His surreal allusions in
‘Sparklers’ – ‘I scratched your name in longhand on the night…’ Louise Gluck’s ‘The White Lilies’ also makes surreal allusions – ‘…make a garden between them like a bed of stars…’; While ‘From A Journal ’relates the melancholy of loss – ‘…to have lost any chance of actually knowing you or remembering you over time as a real person…’; and again with a surreal reference: Mary Oliver’s ‘I know Someone’ – ‘I know someone who kisses the way a flower opens, but more rapidly.’ I often revisit e.e. cummings’ ‘new she was’ for the way he used pacing and metaphor to express physical interaction. (See how I skipped around fucking).
I’ve not had many poems published, but Longing and Singing both reach into the melancholy of lost or unrealized love.
Longing - an American cinquain
In dreams
my glimpse of you,
a faint whispering pale
affirms a hint of what I dared
was love.
Singing - an American cinquain pair
How do
I sing for you
after the wind sweeps you
forever away to touch the sky,
lyrics
composed
intimately
encased in words and touch
delivered to an audience
of two?
Ah thank you so much for reminding of that Kooser line, and all those poems in fact. Mary Oliver of course is the gold standard for so many poets. Love the poems you've shared too!
Olivia Gatwood for her wit and boldness in metaphor. Megan Fernandes for these same reasons. Eileen Myles for their punchiness, how sex and love is treated like a well-worn afterthought woven into everyday humanity. Ada Limon for her starkly rendered joy and pain.
I'd heard of all the other poets you named but Gatwood is new to me. Really enjoying what I've seen online! I recently read Megan Fernandes' Good Boys and my copy's full of underlines
Jack Gilbert for how he grieves lost love and for how he uses imagery and metaphor. Dorianne Laux for how she chooses just the right raw details. Mary Meriam for her use of meter and rhyme, especially in sonnets. Of course all three of these poets do many things well..
Looked up Mary Meriam and so glad I did!! Thanks TR <3
So hard to choose. Mary Oliver for showing me how to pay particular and specific attention, a practice that has decoded my world. Emily Dickinson for her passion and intensity, and for making the anchorite life cool. Leonard Cohen is the poet of my soul and Patti Smith speaks the language of my gut.
Yep, totally feel you on it being hard to choose. Also, you had me at Leonard Cohen