Are there any contemporary poets that you really like? Is poetry

Free verse killed poetry.

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>>9716249

>>9716249

And be free to crush my dreams, already had it done since I wanted to be a classical pianist/composer but a) I'm more good enough and b) demand for this music is negligible

>>9716256
>t. Has a fundamental misunderstanding of poetry

>>9716249
I got a few I like (and have the same aspirations) subscribe to Poetry Magazine for cheap to get a vague feel for the landscape. Then just seek out journals. There's a lot of political stuff now, just like in the 60s-70s but some of even that is p good. If you use the term sjw earnestly you probably will just grumble about minorities without realizing there obsession with being black or Asian is no different than Yeats's obsession with being as Irish as possible.

>I want to contribute to the Western poetical canon
just say that you want to write. it makes you a touch more likeable.

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>>9716249
You've hit the nail on the head, although the classics which are now in the canon were never read by a wide audience in the first place. You'd be surprised how so many of the great poets in the English canon existed in no other format but manuscript until posthumous publication.

Poetry, except for poetry in sacred texts such as Homer and the poetic passages in the Bible, have never been read by a large audience. Your picture is a perfect example: Shakespeare's sonnets are rarely read compared to his plays. Even a contemporary popular poet such as Charles Bukowski had to publish novels to reach his audience. We're a long ways from the sort of audience which could read even Tennyson critically. Technology is mostly to blame for this, in my opinion. It's a logical consequence of the invention of radio, television, the internet, etc.

Even still, regardless of technological innovation, poetry is a bit of a fool's art, because it often relies so much on a well-educated audience in order to be understood and appreciated. You'd have to be a fool to think you'll ever achieve fame with your poetry.

Essentially, if you want to be famous within your lifetime by publishing literature, publish novels. A popular audience for high theater and poetry is dead.

>>9716278

I'm not trying to be pretentious, it is a definable goal. Just like the poets of the past saw themselves within a tradition, I am putting myself in a specific context, "marketed" to a specific audience.