I'm looking for more poetry to read! I prefer to read more modern stuff, from this decade if I can, but there are some classics I'll always make an exception for. Most of my reader friends tend to overlook poetry, but I love it. Any other poets out there ?

Hi... I'm a poet :)

When it comes to modern poets, my number one recommendation is Joshua Jennifer Espinoza. I don't know how I stumbled upon her, but I was drawn in immediately by her soft, powerful language. She writes a lot about gender and being trans, as well as her experience with mental illness.

This is one of my favorite poems by her. I cried when I first read it.

There are a lot of other poets she links to her her blog, and as far as I've looked through, they all seem really amazing, though I haven't had the time to peruse them fully yet.

My other favorite poets aren't that modern, alas. But I'll share my list anyway:

T. S. Eliot - I can't quite describe the way he writes; the best I can do is say that when I read his work, it feels like every word was carefully chosen and perfectly placed. His poetry feels clear and cutting to me and has a quaint musicality when read aloud.

Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath - I group these two confessional poets together because Sexton's work was greatly influenced by Plath, and their styles are similar. Sylvia's work feels more refined, less vulgar than Anne's, but both write with a passionate rawness as beautiful as it is ugly. They both suffered from mental illness, so there is a lot of darkness in their works, but there's bits of hope and light as well.

Charles Bukowski - This guy is very easy to read, but what he writes is cynical, sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking. He writes with an everyday diction about love and loneliness and emptiness and death... All sorts of philosophical subjects, really.

Who are your favorite poets? I don't know many modern poets, but I would love it if you'd like to recommend some :)

I write only poetry. It feels so good to write a poem. I won't post any of my own writings because I write only for myself. A poem that I will post is by Robert Frost: FIRE AND ICE Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.

Oh! R.M. Drake (aka Robert M. Drake) is a poet who is very current! I highly recommend you check out his work.

His writing speaks to me, honestly, and I absolutely adore it. He's the first poet I ever came across who seemed to "speak my soul"... If that makes any sense. c:

Let me know what you think of him once you get the chance. I love introducing people to his writing.

Charles Baudelaire, e.e. cummings, ... ah, I love Charles Baudelaire fleurs du mal is a great link for his poems in english and in french. He's very romantic (ie; lots of imagery of nature and whatnot) so it's very pretty stuff, but some ugliness. Nature can be ugly especially with mankind inserted in the middle of it, haha :D

bukowski is and always will be my alltime favorite poet, even though he wasn't really a good person n____n'

sarah manguso is good too, even though she's not really a poet, but i enjoyed her book of aphorisms "300 arguments", which was similar enough to a poem book i guess!

I was going to suggest Drake too, but then realized I couldn't remember his name D: Love his work though! <3

Gotta say it, since she hasn't been mentioned yet. Maya Angelou. Always. =w= Those are some powerful words she shares. Got a couple of my favorite poems on my profile too. <3

I have to say - I'm not as big on poetry as I am on prose, but I absolutely adore all things Jack Kerouac and Edgar Allan Poe. As far as more modern poetry goes, I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman's work 😄

oh my god Allen Ginsberg! Please do watch the movie, Howl. James Franco plays Allen Ginsberg :D

You should try downloading the PDF for the complete version of Howl. It's a nice read.

And then there's sylvia plath - http://www.neuroticpoets.com/plath/poem/madgirl/

mad girl's love song is one of my favorite villanelles!

Oh man, poetry is definitely my whole Thing, so I just want to rattle off a bunch of names. My favorite poets of all time are Richard Siken and Sharon Olds, but we're in such an amazing time for poetry right now — if you don't know them, definitely look up Danez Smith, sam sax, Fatimah Asghar, Hanif Abdurraqib, Kaveh Akbar, and I'm going to stop now before I keep going forever.

Ooooh, tough one. I love classics like T.S. Eliot and Emily Dickinson. I also adore:

Terrance Hayes Cole Swensen C.D. Wright Matthea Harvey Ocean Vuong

I do love me some Siken- I generally like most of his work. I don't really have any 'specific' poets I'm into generally- I find myself liking the one-off poem and disliking the rest :s.

Me. Lol. No, no, I kid. (But a good friend did actually tell me I was her favorite poet recently, almost made me tear up a little bit!)

But I'd definitely be torn between two people.

Tolkien and Wilde.... and I love them both so much, like stupid amounts, they both did a lot of shaping who I am as a person, tbh.... but I love them for such different reasons, so can I give a two-fer answer here? Lol