Who's your favorite poet? What work of his or her do you like the most?

I don’t really read poetry much. But I always liked Robert Frost (the woods are lovely, dark and deep….) and Shakespeare. The former, because I love his poems, they put me in a contemplative mood. The latter, because I love his comparisons and play on words.

The Notorious Big is my favorite poet hands down.

Muhammad Ali (yes the boxer)- if you get a chance to listen to one of speechs or read any of his quotes, i assure you that you will agree he was one of the most brillant lyricists of our time. He was a rapper before it was invented in the 80’s. He utilized humor, confidence, and most all a passion that no one could overshadow. It distrubes me to see the state that which he existed today, a far cry for the robust and unstoppable force that he was decades ago.

Tom Petty… check out the lyrics for the song “Echo.”

William Blake. I like The Lamb and The Tiger and the rest of his work.

My daddy!

There was a man who shook my hand and gripped it like he meant it
another one, shook the same one and left a dishrag in it.

T.S. Eliot “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

I second Robert Frost.

Also Rilke.

Annabel Lee and Alone by Poe. Actually, most things by Poe. But those are my very favorites.

I also love beat poetry. Allen Ginsberg is my favorite.

Rumi is really good when the mood strikes me.

And I have a huge soft spot for everything that David Thewlis writes.

Charles Bukowski, anything (poetry or not) by him i find wonderful. he’s so raw and human and honest. i also love e.e. cummings, my favorite poems are “i carry your heart with me” and “since feeling is first”.

Ted Hughes’ Crow poems…

Oh, I have many…
I too like Robert Frost: My fav is the Mending Wall…
Sara Teasdale
Sylvia Plath
Maya Angelou
Langston Hughs
Alice Walker
Ogden Nash
Margaret Atwood
William Carlos Williams
I love Blacks paintings
As well as Jack Yates paintings, brother to William Butler Yates…
But that’s just me…..

William Stafford, Matthew Dickman, Jane Hirschfield, Major Jackson, W.H. Auden, Borges, Lucille Clifton