Oh, wow, haha.
So many, lemme try to be brief but thoughtful about this lol…
I’m honestly not a huge fan of classical poets like Shakespeare nor Walt Whitman nor Edgar Allan Poe. I mean they’re INCREDIBLE but I was introduced to them as a young child who had no idea how to analyze a poem, so they were very frustrating to understand and I guess I was too scarred by my homework tantrums that I never went back, lol.
John Donne, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost are all enjoyable, well-known stars.
I’m faaaaar more into modern/contemporary poets, as I studied mostly those guys in university. Here are just a couple deeply special ones because you have a wonderful life to live and I don’t want to keep you, haha.
-Ross Gay, who can write 4-5 page poems in one brilliant sentence. His stuff is quite optimistic, he typically writes about pleasant, seemingly minor experiences like watching a neighbor eat a fig off his tree in the yard or buttoning up his shirt, and there’s this heartbreaking poem that talks mostly about his feet being ugly (lol) but he always takes that seemingly insignificant thing and ties it into these huge, broad themes of love/friendship, memory/remembrance, unity/peace, and hanging on to our gratitude.
-Patricia Smith, whose imagery is phenomenal. It’s hard to describe: when she’s writing about an experience she uses all the right verbs and adjectives to paint pictures in your mind that you never let go of. Like you feel like you’re there with her. She never, ever recycles words in each poem and she never, ever recycles images in her poems. Each one is absolutely unique and creative. I tried to write like her for a few years but it’s important to embrace your own style!
-Danez Smith, whose poetry has a sort of hip-hop style to it—not as rigid as rap but also very chaotic on the page. He doesn’t often use punctuation or capitalization and he formats his poems into different shapes on the paper.
-Fatimah Asghar, Ocean Vuong, Kaveh Akbar (also just a good, sweet person and friend!), Maya Angelou, Maggie Smith, and Margaret Atwood are all fantastic, too. I recommend!
I conclude this fan-girling with a poem by Maggie Smith about having hope for the world and, even, yourself. (And probably for Alice, too, lmao.) Thanks for reading this, hahaha.
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Love poetry in general its same as with music don't care what genre long as it speaks to me, & different ones speak at different times eh? Henry Vaughan & Wilfred Owen are long time faves of mine. But am going to take a look at all others. Many thanks
🥲 You are so kind. No one ever thought I’d get anywhere in my life with a poetry degree, but LOOK AT ME NOW, MAMA! 
. Was late in my life when I realised I needed to cut myself off from dad (not that it bothered him anyway) & suck up fact that my own bad choices were driven by unprocessed feelings regarding his parenting then be grateful for all I did have. Now I truly feel sorry for him as I know he'll never be happy & that's his choice, not my fault. I rejoice that a lot of people here know how hard won happiness within yourself is worth
and wish everyone strength with daily struggle to keep on track.🫂
. Anyone want to start a book on how many threads this dire situation will take? 30? 50? 150?! *bangs head on empty coffee pot *
