Any Anne Sexton fans out there? How about Billy Collins, Mary Oliver, Sharon Olds?

Question

I'm not saying she's the best poet out there...but she's the first I ever really loved, and will always be the closest to my heart.

Answer 1

I have been bringing the poetry of Anne Sexton to other readers' attention for over forty years now. I have even used her Transformations (modern transformations of old fairy tales) to introduce poetry to eighth graders. I'm glad you found and appreciate her work, too.

Though I have been a close reader of Sylvia Plath's work longer and admire it immensely, I have always regretted that Plath received more public and critical attention than Sexton (largely, I think, because of her marriage to Ted Hughes and subsequent tragic death).

Mary Oliver, Linda Pastan, Rita Dove, the late Jane Kenyon, and Lucille Clifton also rank high on my list. Among Plath and Sexton's contemporaries (poets I discovered in the 1960s) Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, James Dickey, and Howard Nemerov would be my other favorites.

Of contemporary poets, esp. those who have had the title Poet Laureate of the US, Billy Collins is probably my favorite. Because he has had a happier life than Plath or Sexton, he writes happier poems. They are simple and accessible to the common reader, but also subtle. His form is deceptively simple, but always has just a big of a twist and a thought-provoking quality that distinguishes his poetry. If you like his work, I think your will also enjoy Ted Kooser, Andrew Hudgins, Edward Hirsch, Wendell Berry, William Stafford and A. R. Ammons (esp. some of Ammons' later work). If Mary Oliver doesn't have her two years as Poet Laureate, it will be a shame, for she certainly deserves the honor.

There's one other favorite that, as an old-timer, I have to recommend. Virginia Hamilton Adair's first book of poetry was published when she was 82, though she had probably been writing most of her life. It's delightfully youthful, funny, ironic, and thoughful. Three of her works are Ants on the Melon, Beliefs & Blasphemies, and Living on Fire. She was born in 1913 and died in 2004. I hope there are other of her work to be published posthumously.

Here's the first little poem in Beliefs & Blasphemies:

Whodunit

Is there some cosmic lab
where the stars conspire, inventing Life?
Did the parturition of nothingness
give birth to all this glory?

The writers of mysteries busy themselves with death.
But who or what is the perpetrator of LIfe?
We live and die in the eternal question mark.

Answer 2

Anne Sexton despite her depression had the courage to write about her recurring illness, despair, and occasional recovery. She was also willing to take on such establishments and taboo subjects as religion, sex, and fairy tales. Her work is not only courageous but allows us to enter a world of thought and rebellion. If she is not she should be a hero to all women. Ms. Sexton is someone I would have liked to know.

Answer 3

Sexton is the first contemporary poet that I was drawn to, and I like Sharon Olds immensely, too. Since you like these poets' style, you'd probably like Adrienne Rich, Li-Young Lee, and Rita Dove.

Answer 4

Sorry,don't like poetry

Answer 5

who?