What poets have you read lately that you would recommend? I’m thinking mostly of recent poets, though I’m happy to hear about anyone you feel strongly about.
I have four poets I’ve been reading this past month -
Jeramy Dodds - Crabwise to the Hounds
Mathew Tierney - Full Speed through the Morning Dark, The Hayflick Limit
Kate Braid - Covering Rough Ground, To This Cedar Fountain, Inward to the Bones, A Well-Mannered Storm
William Aide - Letters to a Musical Friend
- all of whom I highly recommend, even though their styles widely differ. Are there any poets you’ve been reading recently that you’d recommend?
I’ve been re-reading Roam by Susan B.A. Somers-Willett. The organization of the poems throws me off a bit, but the works themselves I quite like. And for me, E. E. Cummings is an eternal favorite - I have the ginormous collected works edition, so I can usually grab that off the shelf and open it to a random page and find something fresh and enjoyable.
Bob Hicok’s Legend of Light and* Insomnia Diary*
Because he recently passed away, I’ve been reding some of Mario Benedetti’s love poems.
The volume “Canto General” from Pablo Neruda.
I’ve been binging on Franz Wright and can’t stop reading his book Walking to Martha’s Vineyard. Every single poem in it is exquisite.
I’m reading Tomas Tranströmer, a Swedish poet who has had considerable impact on my own writing. The link is to poets.org where you can also find a couple of his pieces, translated into English by another brilliant poet - Robert Bly.
I just got back from the U of Toronto Library with my arms full - many thanks for the recommendations! That’ll keep me busy for the next few weeks.
Editor’s cramp - that mushy feeling in your brain from reading too much poetry in one sitting.
Editor’s block - that feeling when you are looking at a page that is unsatisfying, and yet, you cannot think of a single thing that would improve it.
Both terms are closely related to the terms ‘Hermitage Burnout’, ‘Louvre-lustre’ and ‘No MOMA, please’ - all terms describing the viewer’s feelings upon visiting some of the great art collections of the world. Despite your best intentions to view only a handful of paintings and attempt to appreciate them to their fullest, you get sucked in by the fact that you may never get a chance to see the collection ever again, and so, you spend an average of 30 seconds on each painting or sculpture, trying to see everything in the same afternoon. After viewing 360 outstanding works of art in three hours, you find yourself either dismissing Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ as nothing but a gimmick, or staring at a fire extinguisher and unable to determine if it is an Objet Trouvé or a safety precaution.
I’m reading John Ciardi’s translation of Dante’s Inferno.
I’m only on the third, uh, I forget what they call “chapters” in it. But so far I’m finding it easier to understand than I originally thought it’d be.
Sue MacLeod, *That Singing You Hear at the Edges. *