Snowflake Challenge Day 6

[gwyn]

I skipped day 5 because I leave a lot of feedback anyway, at least when I can.

Day 6

In your own space, create your own challenge. What’s something you want to see more people doing in fandom? Is there something you’ve tried that you think other people would enjoy if they gave it a go? Dare your friends to try it out, and have fun with it. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I couldn't think of anything beyond the wish I made on day 2 for people to leave feedback, and of course, that's day 5's challenge, but then I thought maybe it'd be a small personal challenge for me that people could help with.

So, I have never been the biggest poetry fan. I have some poets/poems I love, and I wrote a whole damn 31,000-word fic about Bucky and poetry, and a lot of my story titles come from poetry, not to mention a lot of epigraphs, so you'd think I'd actually be a huge poetry fan, but it was always a bit opaque to me, for the most part. So my challenge would be to help me get more knowledgeable about poetry, or point me to some of your favorites or things you think would help me grok it more. Basically edumacate me.

I've really enjoyed reading some of Richard Siken's poems online, though I know more is available in books. I can probably find some things at the library, but if you have online recs, that's great. Modern poems are fine, as are older and classical (Browning was always intriguingly opaque to me, and of course, I read a lot of Rilke for Things We Lost in the War).

Comments

[musesfool]

I don't really have the chops to help you get educated about poetry, but I do read a lot of it, and post it sometimes, and every year since 2007 (I think?) I've posted a poem every day for National Poetry month, and so I have a lot of the stuff in my journal: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/tag/poetry - you might find something you like.

I also once bookmarked a bunch of online literary/poetry journals, though I can't say whether any of them still exist: https://pinboard.in/u:victoria.p/t:poetry

As for individual poets, I feel like you can't go wrong with Neruda's love poems. I also love Billy Collins and Dorianne Laux and Louise Gluck. Anne Sexton and Adrienne Rich are great.

[ranalore]

Naturally, I have none of my poetry books on this side of the country, but I'm a huge fan of Neruda, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Conrad Aiken, and Margaret Atwood, plus of course Rilke. I also really enjoy T. S. Eliot's poetry, even if I like almost nothing else about the man.

That's just a kind of scattershot sampling of mainstream poets I like, but speculative poetry is actually my wheelhouse. I don't know if that's something that would interest you at all; it would link up to my RL name, so I'd rather share under lock if you'd like more info on that.

[ranalore]

I can't believe I forgot to mention cummings! There are several of his poems I think might be relevant to your interests as a fan of Steve/Bucky. I'm linking to two for different moods. The first is one of his most famous, "[Buffalo Bill's]", which includes the oft-quoted "how do you like your blue-eyed boy/Mister Death." I think the second more applicable, though, and strongly reminiscent of some of your vids. That one is "[it is so long since my heart has been with yours]", which I used as the basis for a story for another long-separated couple in another fandom about ten years ago, but which is even more appropriate to Steve and Bucky. And in fact I would recommend reading the next three poems as a kind of continuation of the same narrative theme (man, I love Google books, which at least sometimes gives me parts of my library back even while it languishes in a storage unit on the other coast).

[tipitiwitchet.livejournal.com]

I'm not much of a poetry person myself. A lot of it just doesn't seem to sink into my brain. That being said, I adore Dorothy Parker and will happily read her poems for hours.

I also take every chance I get to rec Kim Addonizio. Google her and start with What Do Women Want? and Good Girl.

Also, it's funny you mention Browning as I have to re-read My Last Duchess every once in a while.

[killabeez.livejournal.com]

I am also not much of a poetry person, usually, but I wholeheartedly recommend this collection:

Mercy (http://www.amazon.com/Mercy-Dvorah-Simon/dp/1592750117/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216959092&sr=8-1) by Dvorah Simon

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

I want to be better at poetry than I am, but I am honestly terrible at it. However, Mary Oliver is extremely accessible to me and also feels like there is more I could tease out if I were Better At Poems. This page has a handful of hers and the first one is a really good example:

http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/maryoliver.html

She also has several that are just super spot on about grief that I think you might respond to.

Poets

[black-bird-777.livejournal.com]

You cannot go wrong with Mary Oliver. All nature, all the time and magnificent, always.
Billy Collins. Very accessible but great stuff. Start with his early stuff, Picnic Lightning, Questions about Angels, Art of Drowning, Sailing Alone Around the Room.
Margaret Atwood
Ted Kooser - writes a lot about nature, wrote a book with a friend on their morning walks.

Some others - WS Merwin (can be obscure, for some reason he resonates with me), Phillip Levine, Lucia Perillo, Naomi Shihab Nye, Kenneth Rexroth (& his Chinese & Japanese translations).

I have a bunch of individual poems that I've found that I love on my work computer. I can send them/some to you if you'd like.

I also have a lot of Oliver's, Collins's, Kooser's, and Merwin's books & some great anthologies if you'd like to borrow.