Help: I need a good poet (who's living)

[AggieDave 6]

I have to write a report on a good poet who's living. Basically I have to get one his/her's books and read it and write a report, but I don't know who to choose. So all you scholorly types, I could use some help.

I had wanted to do Ginsberg, but then I remembered he died back in 1997.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Michele 1]

<---- not necessarily a scholarly type....

How about Maya Angelou? I am not sure she has a book of just poems though. She is still alive, too.

Also, you may want to check out poetry.com. They have a compilation of current poets...you might find something interesting there.

Ciels-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[FallRate 0]

I have always enjoyed listening to Maya Angelou reciting her own poetry. She should still be alive...I hope.

FallRate

[SudsyFist 0]

last i heard, adrienne rich was still alive. her style, refined over her many years of writing (read: volumes), often reminds me of eliot and pound (*we're not worthy*), so she's an instant hit with me -- i love her work. i'd say give her a shot.

steve

[jtval 0]

dude, Im alive. I write lyrics they're kinda like poems. I am famous(see that thread)!

My photos

My Videos

[Kirils 1]

Martin Espada is the guy you need. Here is a sample of his work.

The Good Liar Meets His Executioners
for Nelson Azócar, Valparaíso, Chile

The first time
the good liar
met his executioners
was at the military tribunal
after the coup.
Before the row of officers
withered stiff as scarecrows,
he grew more polite and forgetful
with each name tolled
on the list: "No, senor. No, senor."
On the wall, the portrait of General Pinochet,
mustache and sunglasses, glowering.

The good liar returned home that day,
but singers of red songs
reddened the waters of Chile
face down in the current,
and the executioners kept vigil
over blazing pyramids of books,
so a passport was forged
with a plan to leave Chile by sea.
Somewhere the waves
rumbled a prayer for him
like a chorus of monks.

The second time
the good liar
met his executioners
was at the dock,
hunched in a peacoat
with a sack on his shoulder.
A pistol dug into his neck,
chamber clicked
like a bored sergeant
cracking his knuckles.
A guard disbelieved the passport
stamped Merchant Marine,
the list of names quivering
in his other hand.

"My name is not on that list,"
the good liar said,
and since his executioner
could not read
without trailing a finger slowly
across the page
the pistol relaxed, leaving
the imprint of the barrel,
and only the passport was burned.
Somewhere the sea lions
lumbered from the surf
and waited all night for him.

The third time
the good liar
met his executioners
was at the house of his mother.
Now his name was on the list,
troops rifle-jabbing him
still in his underwear
to the pickup truck,
family on the sidewalk
begging to give him
at least the dignity of his pants,
neighbors listening with bowed heads.

On the way to the firing squad,
a balding hill where every skull
recalled the bullet's cloud of ink
flooding the brain,
the good liar invented fables
of a colonel he knew,
barbeques in the backyard
and dating his daughter,
boasting to the other
condemned companeros
loud enough
for curious executioners to believe.
The truck circled back
and left him at the jail instead,
thirty men in a room
jostling for a peephole to breathe
or a rubber pot rocking with piss.
Somewhere the ocean boiled for him,
as if here a giant octopus had wrapped itself
around a warship full of admirals.

After bail, the good liar
smuggled himself away from Chile,
the green waved lifting him.
You have to be a good liar, he says.
in the sanctuary of steaming coffee
he tells what he knows three times,
what the lie is,
who the liars.

"Slow down! You are too young
to be moving that fast!"

Old Man Crawfish

[JDBoston 0]

Derek Walcott

[steve1 5]

AggieDave,
I've got a friend, I used to Rodeo with, who's a cowboy poet. He's supposed to be one of the best free verse cowboy poets around. He has read some of his poems at the National Finals Rodeo and other cool places, and has even had his picture in People magazine. He goes to a lot of Readings with Baxter Black. Anyway his name is Paul Zarzinski. He lives in Great Falls Montana. Give him a call if you can't find any of his stuff. He'd enjoy talking to you. Steve1

[wmw999 2,589]

I realize this isn't too helpful in the search for a living poet, but it is funny:

The National Poetry Contest had come down to the last two, a Yale graduate and a redneck from Texas. They were given a word, then they were allowed two minutes to study the word and come up with a poem that contained the word.

The word that they were given was "Timbuktu."

First to recite his poem was the Yale graduate. He stepped to the microphone and said:
"Slowly across the desert sand
Trekked a lonely caravan;
Men on camels, two by two
Destination Timbuktu."

The crowd went crazy! No way could the redneck top that, they thought.

The redneck calmly made his way to the microphone and recited:
"Me and Tim a huntin' went.
Met three whores in a pop up tent.
They was three, and we was two,
So I bucked one, and Timbuktu."

The redneck won hands down!

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[happythoughts 0]

Quote

I have to write a report on a good poet who's living. Basically I have to get one his/her's books and read it and write a report, but I don't know who to choose. So all you scholorly types, I could use some help.

I had wanted to do Ginsberg, but then I remembered he died back in 1997.

Dr. Seuss. Sorry I can't be of more help. He's the only one I've read.
I always heard that chickies dig the guy who reads poetry. I give up.

[steve1 5]

That's a funny one! I really get into sick redneck jokes. Steve1

[Sebazz1 2]

I am not famous
Though I write Friday Haiku
Quite regularly...

[FallRate 0]

Dr. Seuss is dead.

FallRate

[outofit 0]

hemingway! oh wait a minute, damn it he is dead too! forget that idea!

It is better to be dead and cool than alive and uncool!

[rgoper 0]

George Carlin? Andrew Dice Clay? J/K too bad they want a live one, i'd do Jim Morrisson.

--Richard--
"We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"