Poetry: Serious. Not That Serious.

“Who's Your Favorite Poet?”I am often asked this most dreaded of questions by both POETS and NON-POETS (you know, the only relevant way by which to categorize fellow human beings). Not to go all Woody Allen on you, but this question makes me nervous. I feel like I am supposed to have one or two or a whole pantheon of poetry gods to cite instantaneously, like if I fail to answer within seconds with surety and style, my knowledge of the mythology will be considered dubious at best. My MFA degree-in-progress will be defecated upon or even revoked before being awarded. I will be revealed as a poetry charlatan. Jimi Hendrix's “Castles Made of Sand" will echo in the background as the PoPo (short for PoetryPolice), led by Sylvia Plath's ghost and a reproachful but just Gary Snyder, pen a collaborative poem full of chastisement for too much living and not enough reading. It will be entitled: “The Jig Is Up: You Are Not A Real Poet.”But, really, it's a flattering question. Like when someone asks what your favorite kind of cured meat or type of dog is—he or she is interested in you and your tastes. I also think the answer to “So, Who's Your Favorite Poet?” varies, depending on who's doing the asking. And that usually breaks down into the two aforementioned categories of humanity. When a poet asks who your favorite poet is, he or she generally wants to know:a) What kind of poetry you write (We are what we eat)b) If you've heard of any fresh new poets he or she can get down with (We are greed and eclectic creatures)c) If you like Billy CollinsAnd when everyone else you know asks who your favorite poet is, they want: a) Recommendations: Two extremely intelligent ladies who shall remain nameless (one an editor at a publishing house, one an unfairly talented fiction writer) separately told me they “never got into” poetry and were under the impression they were “not smart enough” for the damn thing. And so they asked me who my favorite poet was. And so I gave them a summer reading list. Quiz results to be published on this blog in the fall. (Addendum: It should be noted that poetry recommendations do not work the same way novel recommendations do, in that poetry books I've recommended rarely find their way into friends' Amazon carts. If you have any insight into why this is so, fill me in. I think it has something to do with our deep cultural fear of inhabiting the moment, focusing inward, slowing down, and/or my persuasive abilities.)b) To show support for your incomprehensible and perhaps impractical life choicesc) The sweet, intellectually masturbatory feel of recognizing the name “Billy Collins” Well, no man/woman/body is an island, so I decided to ask some very baller poets I know who their favorite poets are, how they feel about the question I find so awkward, and how their answers to this question vary depending on who's sitting across the table from them. Here are some things I found out:”¢ Lauren Hilger Has A Top Five, Believe Dat “My elevator pitch of fave poets: Hafiz, Rumi, Jane Kenyon, John Berryman, Larry Levis. I love these new Daniel Ladinsky translations of Hafiz--they've totally changed my life. Coleman's Rumi, classic. Berryman's work got sadder and worse as he aged and got sober. Levis freakin rocked until his untimely end. AND JANE. EVERYTHING. All the time. Every time. Jane. Always. JANE!””¢ Aaron Gerber's response: So poetic I'm including (almost) all of it. “No big surprise here, but I'm going to say that Joshua Beckman is my favorite poet, for the simple reason that I read his first book my first semester at Hampshire College, a time when I was beginning to seriously pursue poetry. In that way, he was a seminal poet for me. Following his poetry was like listening to a band that not too many other people knew about (which used to be important to me when I was younger). It was having a familiar secret and growing up as a poet myself within that secret. So I guess the question is could it have been any poet that I discovered when I was 18? No, I don't think so. I think that Beckman immediately appealed to me, and continues to appeal to me, for some very specific reasons. He is playful, funny, but also pretty emotional and personal, and often tricky and trickstery. And there's a sort of humility to his writing that creates a similar feeling to that of the humbler music that I grew up with. While a lot of his traits stay consistent from book to book, he does tend to innovate pretty extensively with each one, not really reinventing himself so much as exploring a different way or part of being himself. So in that sense, his books also serve as a record of my own journey through poetry. And I'm sure that each one has pretty deeply influenced my own writing.I do think there is a big difference for me in the favorite poet question versus the who are you reading right now question. The second question is like asking what the current weather is in your poetry head, and the first is like asking what sort of weather do you prefer. I'm an autumn person, myself.And yes, I will answer the question differently depending on who is asking me. If it is a poet asking, I'm going to think he or she might know who Joshua Beckman is. So I'll say, "Joshua Beckman." If it is a non-poet, or at least someone that I believe doesn't read very much poetry, I'll say something like, "I mostly read contemporary poetry." And then kind of mumble, "This guy Joshua Beckman is pretty good." If the person asks more about him, I'll tell the person to shut up and stop badgering me. This is why I became a poet. To feel like I know about secret and powerful things that most people are too stupid to care about.””¢ Kay Cosgrove & The Notorious BSF's (Big Secret Friends): But Shhh! Don't tell anyone! “I do have a few "BSF" poets (Big Secret Friend, credit Tony Hoagland), the ones I read over and over again. For me, those poets are always and forever Wallace Stevens, W.B. Yeats & Philip Larkin. I get angry that all three of my BSFs are men, but they are, and I can't change that.” Where The Ladies At? “In addition to my three main guys, I have a big big place in my heart for Jane Kenyon, Emily Dickinson & Marie Howe. Recently, as in, this past spring, I have (possibly) added Marianne Moore to that list.”Lauren Hilger's poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in CutBank, Sonora Review, Washington Square Review, and elsewhere. She is a finalist for the Iowa Review Poetry Contest, the Mississippi Review Prize, the Wabash Prize, and a 2012 MacDowell Fellow in Poetry.  Aaron Gerber is Poetry Editor of Barnstorm and currently in the midst of writing a children's book about a pig that isn't hungry. His interest in Joshua Beckman lies somewhere between zero and zilch.  Kay Cosgrove was awarded the John B. Santoianni Poetry Award from the Academy of American Poets in 2011. Her poems have appeared in journals such as Zone 3, Lumina, and the T.J. Eckleburg Review, among others. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the University of Houston's Creative Writing & Literature Program. --Lucy Hitz