Top Ten Books of Poetry from Dead Poets

The Telegraph’s Top Ten Poetry Classics got me wanting to make my own list of Favorite books of poetry. I’ve broken them into two lists, poets alive and poets that are dead. I was going to limit it to the modern era, but I would’ve missed Edgar Lee Masters so I stretched it backwards to include him and upon finding that I was near ten (finding comfort in such tidy numbers) I added Dylan Thomas who I like well enough to round out a top ten list.

Collected Poems by E. E. Cummings

Like man, Cummings was the poet that drew me into poetry. The name of this blog comes from one of his poems and I have written about many others. Here are three of the poems I’ve discussed: 1. Noster was a ship of swank 2. Jehovah Buried, Satan Dead and 3. a thrown a

Circus Days & Nights by Robert Lax

For many years I’ve felt that the circus is the only great metaphor for life so I was thrilled to find someone who shared my belief. Robert Lax patterns his circus poems on the creation myth, working through the creative acts to illuminate wisdom and love. If King Solomon were around today he would be reading Robert Lax.

Cien Sonetos de Amor by Pablo Neruda

My relationship with Neruda began with the famous “pink book” (that has appeared in several films, most recently “Dan in Real Life”) which was translated by Stephen Tapscott. My Guatemalan born, Spanish speaking wife, has revealed Neruda to me in the original language causing my appreciation of Neruda and my depreciation of Tapscott’s translation to grow concordantly. Until the new translation comes out we will make do with out own translations of Neruda’s fine sonnets of love.

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