Contemporary poets worth appreciating

I was easily able to find poems online by both David Reiter and Major Jackson - all of them very good. Often, what excites me about poetry is just how much really excellent stuff is being written today, all over the world - unfortunately, very few see it and it goes largely unacknowledged except in small communities of other poets. Further, the potential of all this great (but largely hidden) poetry to influence our own work, make us stretch as poets, is immense.

One question, though: we may bemoan poetry's anemic sales record in the modern literary world, but how much of it do we ourselves actually purchase? How much poetry do we read from living poets? From poets whom we don't know online? Again, there's a vibrant world of poetry out there, both for sheer enjoyment and for study/inspiration. Not all of it is perfect, by any means, but often times it stretches into interesting directions that are worth exploring.

A really good place to pick up chapbooks, if you're interested, is Effing Press out of Austin TX - you can find that online, though I think the website is currently down. If I recall, Scott Pierce's blog has the ordering info though. The press is his baby, and he does really high quality production work on a hand operated press. The poetry itself is usually pretty damn interesting and largely written by other Austin poets.

Another good site for keeping up to date on current poets is Ron Silliman's blog. While he himself might not be a poet that is accessible to most tastes, his indepth commentary on current (and past) poetry is insightful and highly relevant. Well worth reading from time to time.