Poetry Help

[shwnbob]

I know everyone has better things to do but help me but I just have to put this out there.In a month I'm doing a poetry reading thing for a group I work with. When I read poetry I try to make it my own and so, I add things to them to make them unique. Does anyone know any good poems/poets that I can use I want to see what everyone comes up with. I just ask, please, no love poems, their just to mushy and doesn't really have any power in them.

 

[Gxas]

Try Serj Tankian.

I love his poems. He has a book with a bunch of them called "Cool Gardens". I highly suggest picking it up.

That, or "Jabberwocky" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky]. Best poem ever.

Curious; why no love poems? How do they not have any power?

 

[Souplex]

I am incapable of poetry, dance, and doodling. This saddens me.

 

[Raven's Nest]

Here's a Carol Ann Duffy poem which I quite like...

Education for Leisure

Today I am going to kill something. Anything.
I have had enough of being ignored and today
I am going to play God. It is an ordinary day,
a sort of grey with boredom stirring in the streets

I squash a fly against the window with my thumb.
we did that at school. Shakespeare. It was in
another language and now the fly is in another language.
I breathe out talent on the glass to write my name.

I am a genius. I could be anything at all, with half
the chance. But today I am going to change the world.
something's world. The cat avoids me. The cat
knows I am a genius, and has hidden itself.

I pour the goldfish down the bog. I pull the chain.
I see that it is good. The budgie is panicking.
Once a fortnight, I walk the two miles into town
For signing on. They don't appreciate my autograph.

There is nothing left to kill. I dial the radio
and tell the man he's talking to a superstar.
he cuts me off. I get our bread-knife and go out.
the pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your arm.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

Actually, some of John Donne's poems were about love, and were quite powerful. If you want 'unique,' give him a look up.

I would suggest Poe and Frost, too, but they are fairly common. Maybe some Atwood?

Also, stay away from Emily Dickinson. Seriously. She was messed up. And her poetry isn't that great. [sub]It can also be sung to "The Yellow Rose of Texas, but that's besides the point...[/sub]

 

[Sad Robot]

When I read poetry I try to make it my own and so, I add things to them to make them unique.

Err, what? I hope you're not saying what I think you're saying.

But on the topic of poets, I enjoy William Blake, Charles Bukowski, Dylan Thomas, William Carlos Williams, Sylvia Plath and John Milton to mention but a few.

 

[Last of the Chinchillas]

Well, I've always been fond of Shel Silverstein. His stuff tends to be pretty funny and I spent a couple months just going through his poems again and again when I first found them.

Ah, but what do I know? I'm just a man with a bag on his head!

 

[Sad Robot]

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."

- William Blake

 

[hittite]

Anything at all, ever by Rudyard Kipling, you may know him better as the author of the Jungle Book and Rikki Tikki Tavi, but his poetry is simply amazing.

make sure you check out:
Gunga Din
Tommy
The Sons of Martha
A Hymn Before Action
Recessional

I could go on for hours

 

[Naeo]

Robert Frost (better bet) or E.E. Cummings (dear lord if you can even just read one of them aloud successfully, many kudos).

 

[NiceGurl_14]

I myself am a published poet but I don't know what your looking for, if you want to read some of my stuff, message me personally but other than that, I'll agree with Glefistus, Poe is awesome to read.

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

DELETED

 

[A Weary Exile]

I don't really like poetry, but I like this poem, for some odd reason:

Halfway down the trail to Hell,
In a shady meadow green
Are the Souls of all dead troopers camped,
Near a good old-time canteen.
And this eternal resting place
Is known as Fiddlers' Green.

Marching past, straight through to Hell
The Infantry are seen.
Accompanied by the Engineers,
Artillery and Marines,
For none but the shades of Cavalrymen
Dismount at Fiddlers' Green.

Though some go curving down the trail
To seek a warmer scene.
No trooper ever gets to Hell
Ere he's emptied his canteen.
And so rides back to drink again
With friends at Fiddlers' Green.

And so when man and horse go down
Beneath a saber keen,
Or in a roaring charge of fierce melee
You stop a bullet clean,
And the hostiles come to get your scalp,
Just empty your canteen,
And put your pistol to your head
And go to Fiddlers' Green.

 

[Sad Robot]

I just ask, please, no love poems, their just to mushy and doesn't really have any power in them.

No power? I think you'll find that love poems have the power of getting your girlfriend to have sex with you. Well at least they do when I write them...

Although that might be entirely because you wrote them and for her.

 

[lostclause]

You could try William Wordsworth, his poems are quite interesting.

 

[shwnbob]

These are all great thank you all! I don't know which to pick.