Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?

#241

Post by bnomis » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 2:30 AM UTC

Simon Armitage. Lovely northern English rhythms.

My Party Piece from Book of Matches

  My party piece:
  I strike, then from the moment when the matchstick
  conjures up its light, to when the brightness moves
  beyond its means, and dies, I say the story
  of my life -
  
  dates and places, torches I carried,
  a cast of names and faces, those
  who showed me love, or came close,
  the changes I made, the lessons I learnt -
  
  then somehow still find time to stall and blush
  before I'm bitten by the flame, and burnt.
  
  A warning, though, to anyone nursing
  an ounce of sadness, anyone alone:
  don't try this on your own; it's dangerous,
  madness.

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?

#242

Post by aminorex » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 2:32 AM UTC

George Herbert, Du Fu, T S Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wm Blake, WB Yeats, Li Po, Mallarme, 2 Dylans, Dante, Sappho, Homer

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?

#243

Post by aminorex » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 2:33 AM UTC

George Herbert, Du Fu, T S Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wm Blake, WB Yeats, Li Po, Mallarme, Dante, Sappho, Homer

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?

#244

Post by vijayr » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 2:45 AM UTC

Great thread. Emily Dickinson

  I'm nobody! Who are you?
  Are you nobody, too?
  Then there's a pair of us -- don't tell!
  They'd banish -- you know!

  How dreary to be somebody!
  How public like a frog
  To tell one's name the livelong day
  To an admiring bog!

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?

#245

Post by lateguy » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 2:57 AM UTC

Charles Bukowski: All The Way, one of the most motivational poem i have experienced in life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6_QUhUPrF4

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?

#246

Post by aerovistae » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 2:58 AM UTC

nngrey wrote: post #234

David E. Howerton. He's not well known but one of my favorites. tajpe’ joj ‘oy’wI’Daq boS yabwImey legh choSmeyDaq nuqDaq Hon e’be’ pa’ Qoy ghoghmey tun retlh HeH yabmey ghIH nuqDaqvIpbe’ And the translation: Torn between pains, the gathering of my mind, seeing shadows move, which aren’t there. Hear the voices whispering along the edge of minds coming out of nowhere.

what on earth language is that?

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?

#247

Post by init0 » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 3:04 AM UTC

  Don't imitate me;
  it's as boring
  as the two halves of a melon.

poet Matsuo Basho

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?

#248

Post by mesofile » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 3:09 AM UTC

Almost all of the poetry I know well came from a single audio collection that I was happily exposed to many years ago; it's called Exact Change and each track is still available on the U.Penn web site [0]. All of the poets are well-known in their fields, some well-known enough to be known to the public, and I have wound up taking many to heart. Among my favorites are the ones by Jack Spicer, John Godfrey, and Kamau Brathwaite. Take a moment to listen, it's very revealing to hear a poem read by its author.

[0] http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Exact-Change.html

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?

#249

Post by jordhy » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 3:15 AM UTC

Pablo Neruda, Nicanor Parra and Pablo Picasso (he wrote great prose poems). I also like Fransisco de Quevedo and Miguel de Cervantes (yes, Cervantes was also a poet).

Re: Ask HN: Who are your favorite poets?

#250

Post by tapichu » Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 3:29 AM UTC

ta82828 wrote: post #128

throwaway43 wrote: post #7

Neruda is my favourite. I want to do to you , what the spring does to the cherry trees. Here's another one Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. How he is able construct such powerful verse out of simple words and concepts always blows me away. Though it looks easy I've never seen a good imitation of his style. Then there's this poem by Phillip Larkin that I like. They fu…

Neruda + Pop band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWnM45HLe_A

Wow! I though nothing could be cornier than Neruda.