I've been wondering lately about where people find the sort of poetry that interests them. I don't subscribe to any journals of poetry, but I read the two or three poems that the New Yorker publishes every week. And the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle usually features a poem selected by a noted author or poet. And this site, of course. But are there other sites that people like to visit in order to see what the better poets are up to these days?
I'll answer, but I think this thread should be in the By Writing Form forum, subforum Poetry. What I'm not reading (but probably should be) is more of the classical stuff by the masters. Problem is I've yet to find any that truly inspire me. What I am reading right now is Imagist Poetry - an anthology edited by Peter Jones, but I'm also constantly dipping into various other anthologies - Short and Sweet: 101 Very Short Poems edited by Simon Armitage. Three books from the 60s/70s: Poems of the Sixties. Voices. And Worlds. Alongside a huge tome of William Carlos Williams poems from 1939-1962. As for sites, there's one or two tumblr poets I follow, but that's it.
My friend’s stuff and that’s about it. I have bought a book of Oscar Wilde’s stuff recently but it’s not easy to grasp. I prefer to write poetry than to read it because, as with novels, I am really fussy and find it hard to find something that grabs my attention.
I agree that this thread should be moved. @Wreybies, @minstrel, @Mckk, @Komposten - can one of you please move it? I tend to favor poetry anthologies. Norton and Penguin have good introductions to some of the more famous poems in history. The Best American Poetry series is published every year, and luckily, my local public library carries it. For online stuff, I look through Poetry Magazine since they occasionally publish stuff I like. The New Yorker has some good stuff as well. I'll be honest, though, I don't "get" a lot of modern poetry, so I'm happy revisiting old poems I like in either anthologies or poetry collections.
I third the acknowledgment that this thread should be moved... as nice as the topic is! Being a student I've largely used library resources... they're always great. You don't need academic access either; if you're lucky enough to live in London, for instance, you can always use the wonderful National Poetry Library. Other major cities also have libraries dedicated to poetry, and local libraries also have some material. Over the years I've also accumulated my own little collection; aside from poets I really admire I also enjoy anthologies (the Norton Anthology of Poetry is the most extensive collection which contains stuff from Old English to the present day... it's quite a monster!; there's also the New Penguin Book of English Poetry; Songs of Ourselves by the Cambridge University Press, etc.); otherwise anthologies according to topic (e.g. like @OurJud's imagist poetry collection, or metaphysical poets...); there's so much stuff out there it's difficult where to look. As for exclusively contemporary poetry, it's difficult to determine the good from the bad stuff (as is the case with fiction, of course), so the only advice I could give would be to read widely. The Forward Book of Poetry is released each year, as is New Poetries by Carcanet. A lot of poetry journals also have an online presence where they showcase their stuff. The best thing you can do is just weed through it all, and if you discover a poet you like, buy their collections. In short: being a poetry freak I have a large collection myself and use the old-fashioned library. For new material, I look into poetry journals and read their stuff, and buy the odd contemporary anthology. I stay away from Tumblr and instagram poets, however - not because I don't believe there can be good poets on there, but because I'm not sure how to use them
Monster indeed! I amazoned this out of curiosity and picked the first in the list - 2256 pages ETA: Hold on, that can't be right - not in paperback! I've just grabbed my copy of William Carlos Williams Collected poems II. It's a door-stopping 4.5cm thick and contains 555 pages. That means the Norton one must be somewhere close to 18cm thick ??? AETA: According to the product details it's just 5cm thick. Even if they used bible paper that still doesn't add up.
I happen to have vol. I of Williams' poems (slightly larger than Vol. II apparently), so I compared them for you (hope this works):
@ReproveTheCurlew Well there you go. I read a review which said the paper's so thin the text shows through making it difficult to read. Regardless, I need that book in my life, although not enough to be paying £26 for the bugger!
@OurJud Yeah, it is very thin - but not so much that it shows through, at least not with my copy. I would highly recommend it; it's really a treasure chest of poetry. But yes, I can understand your reservations - and because of the thin paper AND it being paperback it's rather fragile, so it's one of the few instances where I'd advise not to buy it second hand, and a new copy is rather expensive... I was lucky because it was a required part of our reading list before I started studying, so I was still able to bug my parents into getting it for me... oh, the good old jolly days of financial stability...
Modern stuff -- I read In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkey's by Cambell McGrath which I thought was real good and Alien Vs Predator by Michael Robbins which was fun cause it dealt with a lot of pop culture. Usually I go to my favorite used book store and browse through slim volumes and see if there's anything that catches my eye. I've found a few Canadian poets I like Earle Birney & Al Purdy and a handful of woman poets who unfortunately only put out a couple of volumes a piece. One of my faves to my knowledge only published one. I like poems that have sharp use of verbs, clear visuals that create puzzling ideas. Nothing too clear or sorted out. I've done Baudelaire and the like and the surrealists but I'm not crazy about them … they're okay. I'd like to get my hands on a copy of one of Chelsey Minnis collections -- Zirconia maybe but I can't seem to find her in my area.
I have a Robert Frost anthology that I often enjoy reading. I also have a giant anthology of American poets with tons of poets, all of which have several poems, that I like to read. Additionally I've been trying to read a bit more modern poetry. Most of that I read online, though.
My book of Elizabeth Bishop's poems is falling apart because I read it so much. I like to reread poetry. I like to read it aloud when I'm home alone. And Elizabeth Bishop is hands down the poet that I go back to the most. Coming in at a close second would have to be Ezra Pound. As far as contemporary poets, I like Dan O'Brien and Richard Hoffman. They regularly publish in journals and are both brilliant.