1. Donne
2. Hopkins
- both of these for the joy of language and rhythm, and
the concision of argument
3. Denise Levertov
- for her passionate and moral attention to her
subjects
4. Amy Clampitt
- similarly, and also for her exemplary skill in
constructing poems - a poet who's way too underrated,
in my view
5. Heaney's prose
- which never fails to make me think
6. Basil Bunting's Briggflatts
- (can I have 6?) - it's symphonic in scope and form
I love Rilke, but he's a very bad influence on me. Reading him makes me want
to do that too, and my attempts invariably come out self-indulgent.
And I live in joyful anticipation of finding other wonderful things to learn
from!
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "TheOldMole" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 3:19 AM
Subject: Re: influential books
>I started writing on books that have influenced me, but it wandered way off
>topic, and I ended up putting it on my blog instead. So it's there, if
>anyone's really looking for a way to waste a few minutes.
>
>
> Halvard Johnson wrote:
>> I'll shoot for five here, Andrew, with minimal comments:
>>
>> 1. Robert Creeley, *For Love*
>> This one came out right around the time I first heard Creeley
>> read in public, an event that jumpstarted my life in poetry.
>>
>> 2. William Carlos Williams
>> No particular book, so let's say the oeuvre--again especially
>> when I was beginning.
>>
>> 3. John Ashbery
>> Again no particular book, but *Household Days* hit me early
>> and hard.
>>
>> 4. Gertrude Stein
>> Start anywhere and read in any direction.
>>
>> 5. Gerard Deniz
>> Particularly the selected poems translated by Monica de la
>> Torre. A recent love.
>>
>> Hal
>>
>> "Then there are a number of things
>> one googles or does not google."
>>
>> after Gertrude Stein
>>
>> Halvard Johnson
>> ================
>> [log in to unmask]
>> http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard/index.html
>> http://entropyandme.blogspot.com
>> http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.com
>> http://www.hamiltonstone.org
>> http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard/vidalocabooks.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jul 28, 2007, at 10:45 PM, andrew burke wrote:
>>
>>> Just a few days ago, Ron Silliman posted a comment about a book
>>> comprised of lists and comments by poets - as per the following:
>>>
>>> (QUOTE) 'When, in editing the first volume of Poet's Bookshelf, Peter
>>> Davis got some 81 poets to respond to his request for a list of
>>>
>>> 5-10 books that have been most "essential" to you, as a poet
>>>
>>> and asked his respondents further to "Please write some comments about
>>> your list," he got an awesomely, if predictably, wide range of
>>> reactions.' (END QUOTE)
>>>
>>> I would be very interested in hearing from p'etcers on their lists of
>>> "essential books" - hopefully with comments. I'm still thinking about
>>> mine - the list seems to change daily >g< but some remain stable. I'll
>>> post my Sunday list this evening.
>>>
>>>
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