Recommend a Poet/Poem

[Galant]

For as long as I remember I've been in this curious state where I like the idea of poetry, generally see it in a positive light, have enjoyed a few poems, and have even tried to write one or two, but yet somehow I have never really 'fallen in love' with or been 'wowed' by any one poet or poem. I feel like what poetry is, in my mind, hasn't matched the reality I've experienced. Still, I feel as though it's my experience that's lacking and not poetry itself - that I just haven't found the right poem/poet/type of poetry.

I'd say I found most affinity with classic Japanese haiku, although I think I recall enjoying some Robert Frost during my time in high school.

So, a question for anyone who cares, what's been your experience with poetry, and if you have any recommendations of favourite poems/poets I'd love to hear them!

Cheers!

[g8ina]

Oh, the island of
Haiku is seventeen syl
lables long, doo dah.

Les Barker.

[Ttaskmaster]

Ozymandias, by PB Shelley.
Favourite 'classic' poem of mine.

Also, listen to the lasttrack on the Crüxshadows album Paradox Addendum, a performance of Annabel Lee by EA Poe.

I also find certain singers' lyrics read great as poetry, especially if you've not heard the song yet.
Gary Numan, Tom Waits, Don McLean, some Alannah Myles... Leonard Cohen is interesting to me, but the poor fella really wasn't a born singer!

There's a lot out there for a lot of different tastes!

[Gerrard]

With bony hands I hold my partner
On soulless feet we cross the floor
The music stops as if to answer
An empty knocking at the door
It seems his skin was sweet as mango
When last I held him to my breast
But now we dance this grim fandango
And will four years before we rest.

From Grim Fandango.

We may have years
We may have hours
But sooner of later
We push up flowers.

Also from Grim Fandango.

Probably not the sensible answer you were looking for, and it's only because it's recently been released on PS4 that I decided to look into it again on the PC and remembered these.

[chuckskull]

I think I'm in a similar place to you poetry wise. I've enjoyed quite a few, I'm lucky enough to know a few people who love their poetry one even a published poet herself, so they're full of excellent recommendations, but only one poem has really ever stuck with me. Desiderata by Max Ehrmann, which you might like if you like Frost, bit more prose'y than him though. Might be a bit soppy or 'inspirational' for some though.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

[Phage]

http://www.dorotheamackellar.com.au/.../mycountry.htm

[Zak33]

String.. is a very important thing.
Rope is thicker.. but.. string is quicker

and

There are holes in the sky where the rain gets in...
But they're ever so small.. that's why rain is thin

(both fromy my memory but pretty sure they're bang on)

or perhaps

Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth,
And spotted the dangers beneath
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food.
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.

I wish I’d been that much more willin’
When I had more tooth there than fillin’
To give up gobstoppers,
From respect to me choppers,
And to buy something else with me shillin’.

When I think of the lollies I licked
And the liquorice allsorts I picked,
Sherbet dabs, big and little,
All that hard peanut brittle,
My conscience gets horribly pricked.

My mother, she told me no end,
‘If you got a tooth, you got a friend.’
I was young then, and careless,
My toothbrush was hairless,
I never had much time to spend.

Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right,
I flashed it about late at night,
But up-and-down brushin’
And pokin’ and fussin’
Didn’t seem worth the time – I could bite!

If I’d known I was paving the way
To cavities, caps and decay,
The murder of fillin’s,
Injections and drillin’s,
I’d have thrown all me sherbet away.

So I lie in the old dentist’s chair,
And I gaze up his nose in despair,
And his drill it do whine
In these molars of mine.
‘Two amalgam,’ he’ll say, ‘for in there.’

How I laughed at my mother’s false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath.
But now comes the reckonin’
It’s methey are beckonin’
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.

you'll find Pam on utube really easily.. her accent and tone are something to be admired and to laugh at

[Galant]

Thanks guys - keep them coming! I'm reading them all. So far I've also been recommended the following:
'Conversation Among the Ruins' by Silvia Plath
'The Calvinist' by John Piper
'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

[Domestic_Ginger]

Roald Dahl - the anteater, the snail, Cinderella or the pig. ( these are the ones that spring to mind. Both dirty beasts and revolting rhymes are packed with crackers)

Unrivalled. They seem to have them on YouTube.

[g8ina]

and a repost of my published son James' poem about inpending fatherhood :

A poem by James Harris

Sparks in the Dark

Sparks in the dark: yours, mine
in this vessel swaddled
lovers collide
“once you've got your eye in
there's someone home”
tearfrosted window: a bloom, diffuse, barely aglow
but-
(quickbreathin eyeswide bitelip fistclenched)
-but there
a swimming nexus, singing forth, forming, growing
out from a singularity
the spark has taken; the dark has broken
definite defiant but vague: glorious paradox

not even our pounding hearts combined keep pace
with this fuzzy little fizzing racing pulse
and our minds combined won't yet fully comprehend


the something from the nothing at the start of it all

[neonplanet40]

I teach various poems to my pupils but I still like some of the odder ones from University. Such as this poem by Carson describing a riot using punctuation.

Belfast Confetti

Suddenly as the riot squad moved in, it was raining exclamation marks,
Nuts, bolts, nails, car keys. A fount of broken type.
And the explosion
Itself – an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst of rapid fire …
I was trying to complete a sentence in my head, but it kept stuttering,
All the alleyways and side-streets blocked with stops and colons.

I know this labyrinth so well – Balaclava, Raglan, Inkerman, Odessa Street –
Why can’t I escape? Every move is punctuated.
Crimea Street. Dead end again.
A Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh. Makrolon face-shields.
Walkie-talkies. What is
My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I
going? A fusillade of question-marks.