Thread: Your Favourite Poets

I like Colin Mcnaughton's poems. He's written some very funny poems that I always used to read.

I had a little nut-tree
Nothing would it grow,
So I dug it up and burnt it
And brought an apple tree instead

Raymond Carver, e.e. cummings, Auden, and The Book of Songs (Chinese compendium of 305 poets, sometimes attributed to Confucius but more likely just compiled in one version by him.)

Ripe Plums

ripe plums are falling
now there are only seven
may a fine lover come for me
while there is still time

ripe plums are falling
now there are only three
may a fine lover come for me
while there is still time

ripe plums are falling
I lay them in a shallow basket
may a fine lover come for me
and tell me his name

Confucius "Book of Songs"

The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry Web Companion

Cummings, Dickinson, Jim Morrison, Kerouac, Rumi...to name a few.

Edgar Allan Poe has always been a favourite of mine. (:

Dr. Suess! Don't know if I spelled that right, or if he's even a poet. I also like this one book of poetry for younger people, I think it's called something like "Where the Sidewalk Ends"

Anyone heard of it?

The funniest thing about all this is that my favorite poet isn't even published. Everyone always assumes that the most famous people are automatically the greatest, hence the reasons there are so many famous names on this thread.

Actually, I think famous people are the ones that are widely distributed and thus, more widely read. My favorite poet is Sylvia Plath. I read a few of her poems such as "Cut" and "Balloons" which happen to be in one of my poem anthologies I got from class and really liked them. I didn't realize they were by the same author until after reading them, which made me realize that I liked her style.

To name a few...

Sylivia Plath
Anna Akhmatova
Robert Lowell
James Merrill

So many great classic poets. Lots of whom are mentioned here. I love poetry from the first world war, some of which is actually anonymous which perhaps makes it all the more compelling. Better known as a rugby song 'I don't want to join the army' actually dates from the Great War which amused my husband no end!

As well as a penchant for the classic I actually enjoy some more recent. This guy is called John Cooper Clarke and is from my youth when during the punk era I actually lived in Salford.

The Poems of John Cooper Clarke

This poem always makes me laugh:

I wanna Be Yours...


I wanna be your vacuum cleaner
breathing in your dust
I wanna be your Ford Cortina
I will never rust
If you like your coffee hot
let me be your coffee pot
You call the shots
I wanna be yours

I wanna be your raincoat
for those frequent rainy days
I wanna be your dreamboat
when you want to sail away
Let me be your teddy bear
take me with you anywhere
I don’t care
I wanna be yours
I wanna be your electric meter
I will not run out
I wanna be the electric heater
you’ll get cold without
I wanna be your setting lotion
hold your hair in deep devotion
Deep as the deep Atlantic ocean
that’s how deep is my devotion


Probably not funny unless you have holidayed in Blackpool this one is also worth it:

I Mustn't Go Down To The Sea Again - John Cooper Clarke

He rants on subjects as varied as dirty raincoat men and mistreatment of hire cars and never fails to make me laugh.

Worth a look guys.

Kerouac, Kerouac, Kerouac, Whitman, Ginsberg, Shelley, Corso, Blake, Rimbaud, Dylan, I could just keep going but I'll stop

Somhairle MacGilleEain.

Somhairle MacGilleEain.

pablo neruda

dreamworx - thats shell silverstein

The Silver Fish by Shell Silverstein is absolutely wonderful!

Cressida, I love John Cooper Clarke! Have you read much of the Merseysound poets - Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten? Similar informal, fresh styles.