I’m looking for a living poet who writes about nature. Or who writes in rhyme and meter. Either one. I need to get a book of poems by Monday, and I can’t think of anyone who I like.
Thanks in advance.
Richard Wilbur is probably the most prolific and proficient poet writing in rhymed verse today. I’m pretty sure he’s still alive.
W.S. Merwin writes about nature (but does not use rhyme or meter), and IMO, is a bloody genius (he’s my favorite living poet). If your bookstore or library has his collection called The Second Four Books of Poems (which compile these four books: The Moving Target, The Lice, The Carrier of Ladders, and Writings for an Unfinished Accompaniment, which can also be found separately), that’s a good place to start. His later works are longer in length (like, book-length epics) but still very much centered on nature and the environment.
You can also read some of his poetry here.