Which poet is installed in your home?

[Arkham House]

For a long time, it was Whitman...but that got to be a little funky, and he had to go. So I switched to Christina Rossetti, and haven't regretted it a bit..she's a little in the minor key, but that's what I like...whom have you got in your place?

[kiraboo]

1. Not a lot.

Shakespeare, Anne Sexton, John Donne... this very day I donated to charity Edna St. Vincent Millay (ugh) along with about two hundred other books, none of which were poetry!

[Oeditpus Rex]

2. Wordsworth

"Ah. Bloody daffodils."



Poets are both clean and warm
and most are far above the norm
Whether here or on the roam
have a poet in every home

[AlienGirl]

3. A.E. Housman

XVIII
Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?
And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists?
And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?
Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

'Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his;
In the good old time 'twas hanging for the colour that it is;
Though hanging isn't bad enough and flaying would be fair
For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair.

Oh a deal of pains he's taken and a pretty price he's paid
To hide his poll or dye it of a mentionable shade;
But they've pulled the beggar's hat off for the world to see and stare,
And they're haling him to justice for the colour of his hair.

Now 'tis oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet
And the quarry-gang on Portland in the cold and in the heat,
And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare
He can curse the God that made him for the colour of his hair.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. I have the complete Ginsberg.

My favorite poet is Marie Howe (and one of my friends had her as an MFA advisor...that bastard). I also really enjoy the local poets B.J. Ward and Crystal Bacon, both have several books out.

[jobycom]

5. Odd for a man, but Adrienne Rich

I installed her to draw attention to my militantism at a point when it had flared, but once it cooled I discovered that she still filled the same spot nicely, better than someone more male would do. And my daughters, one of whom mysteriously acquired the same first name, might notice her one day and ask some questions I hope they ask, about what the hole would look like without her there.


I came to explore the wreck.
The words are purposes.
The words are maps.
I came to see the damage that was done
and the treasures that prevail.
I stroke the beam of my lamp
slowly along the flank
or something more permanent than fish or weed

the thing I came for:
the wreck, and not the story of the wreck
the thing itself, and not the myth.

[iconoclastic cat]

6. Poe, Coleridge, Nin, Silverstein...

For some reason, I'm blanking on the rest. But there are lots.

[RetroLounge]

7. Apparently I'm living in the house with Sappho

:shrug:

RL

[StellaBlue]

8. Frost, medieval Chinese Zen poets, and Dylan Thomas

nt

[Xipe Totec]

9. Pretty Eclectic here...

Shakespeare, of course, and Neruda, but also

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz,
Salvador Diaz Miron
Amado Nervo
Miguel Hernandez,
Aleksandr Pushkin,
Anna Akhmatova

[chat_noir]

10. Pablo Neruda

Ah, to hear* Andy Garcia recite "Tonight I Can Write"....


*Il Postino soundtrack

[yellowdogintexas]

11. Poe, Shakespeare, Robert Penn Warren,Milton, Chaucer, and a poet

named Patchen whose work is passionately adored by my husband.

Now I also have several of those collections that one acquires ..best American, Best British, Victorian LIt, etc.

[The Sushi Bandit]

12. Natalie Mains

[Ivan Sputnik]

13. Lots

Shakespeare, Neruda, Plath, Hughes, Simic, Bukowski, Baudelaire, and a several anthologies.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

14. There's some Shakespeare around here. Isn't there Shakespeare EVERYWHERE?

;)

Oh, and my own sorry attempts, of course. :D

Nothing else that I can think of off the top of my head. I've never been a collector of poetry books; what anthologies I would find around here would be my mother's.

[swag]

15. Hm.

Jim Gurley was installed for a couple nights. We got loaded, played music really loud, and really pissed off the housemate.

[Glorfindel]

16. Ogden Nash...

when I need to be cheered up, there he is, God bless him.
"The kangaroo can jump incredible.
He has to jump, because he's edible.
Australians with cookbooks as well as boomerangs,
Like him in fancy kangaroo meringues.
I could NOT eat a kangaroo,
But many fine Australians do."