I thought I'd follow up my recent "Top 10 Novels" post with a post about my favorite poets, seeing as poetry is my bread and butter, as it were, when it comes to Creative Writing.

Now, to be honest, I hardly EVER find poetry that I don't like, so this list is just a way to get a conversation going. I like 'em all, really.

These 10 writers are just the poets I was reading heavily during the writing process of my first book of poems, Phantastikon, so I wanted to take a moment to highlight them today.

Without further ado, let's turn to the troubadours!

1) Tadeusz Różewicz

Różewicz is my favorite poet ever, by a long shot. He's a Polish poet from the 20th century, but he's what you'd call an "anti-poet," insofar as his poems don't use meter or rhyming, but long streams of provocative images instead.

Here's an excerpt from his poem "The Return":

"I am all right leave me
alone. Head in hand
sit and sit. How can I tell them
about that long
and tangled way.

Here in heaven mothers
knit green scarves

flies buzz

Father dozes by the stove
after six days' labour.

No--surely I can't tell them
that people are at each
other's throats"

2) Adrienne Rich

Rich, who just passed away in 2012, was one of the best poets in the world in my opinion, making her perhaps the most prodigal female poet America's had in recent years. She was the definition of a seasoned veteran who just EXUDED complex, deeply stimulating poetry.

Here's an excerpt from her poem "Diving Into the Wreck":

"And I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair
streams black, the merman in his armored body.
We circle silently
about the wreck
we dive into the hold.
I am she: I am he

whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes
whose breasts still bear the stress
whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies
obscurely inside barrels
half-wedged and left to rot
we are the half-destroyed instruments
that once held to a course
the water-eaten log
the fouled compass"

3) Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens is the master of imagination. His poems are so mysterious, they're great for sitting down with a cup of coffee - they'll really get your mind going.

Here's an excerpt from his poem "Man Carrying Thing":

"Things floating like the first hundred flakes of snow
Out of a storm we must endure all night,

Out of a storm of secondary things),
A horror of thoughts that suddenly are real.

We must endure our thoughts all night, until
The bright obvious stands motionless in cold."

4) Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound is dear to my heart, because his poetic school of thought, "Imagism," is what I use to guide my own poetic writing style. He calls for brief, imagistic language, and his poetry is a testament to the brilliance these dictates can produce.

Here's his incredible, albeit very short, poem "In a Station of the Metro":

"The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough."

5) e. e. cummings

e. e. cummings is so amazing to me because no one is better at experimenting with language than him. His "voice" is unlike anyone else's, and in that light, he's a model for all of us when it comes to forging our own unique voices.

Here's an excerpt from his poem "[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]":

"here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)"

6) Natasha Trethewey

Natasha Trethewey was the Creative Writing professor of my own Creative Writing professor at the University of West Florida, Jonathan Fink. She was also recently the Poet Laureate of the United States. She's a total bad-ass!

Here's an excerpt from her poem "Letter Home":

"Goodbye

is the waving map of your palm, is
a stone on my tongue."

7) Jonathan Fink

Jonathan Fink taught my Fiction Writing, Playwrighting, and Poetry Writing classes at the University of West Florida, and I will always take his teachings with me wherever I go. He's a first-rate technician.

Here's an excerpt from his poem "The Crossing":

The bodies hang like chimes within the boughs.
Perhaps the height is welcome to the dead

that wake alone inside the bamboo slats.
They undulate a moment in the air,

then weave between the limbs to reach the sea.
The living are asleep in huts below."

8) Tomas Tranströmer

Tranströmer, a Swede, was the 2011 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature, deservingly so. His verses are as mysterious as they are elegant; do check them out!

Here's an excerpt from his poem "Outskirts":

"It is still beautiful to hear the heart beat
but often the shadow seems more real than the body.
The samurai looks insignificant
beside his armor of black dragon scales."

9) Roberto Bolaño

Bolaño is a Chilean poet with verses half-and-half sordid and mystical all at once. If you're looking for a heavy dose of mind f*ck, then you have to check out his poems ASAP.

Here's an excerpt from his poem "My Gift to You":

"My gift to you will be an abyss, she said,
but it will be so subtle you'll perceive it
only after many years have passed
and you are far from Mexico and me.
You'll find it when you need it most,
and that won't be
the happy ending,
but it will be an instant of emptiness and joy.
And maybe then you'll remember me,
if only just a little."

10) T. S. Eliot

Eliot produced The Waste Land, one of the finest poems ever rendered in English. He was an absolute master, and he'll always have my respect.

Here's an excerpt from his poem "Preludes":

"The morning comes to consciousness
Of faint stale smells of beer
From the sawdust-trampled street
With all its muddy feet that press
To early coffee-stands.

With the other masquerades
That time resumes,
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms."

Well, that's it for now! What about you guys? Who are your favorite poets? I'd love to hear them, be sure to sound off in the comments below!

-WMP