'Sleeper'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Rita Dove (former Poet Laureate, Ohioan, alumna of my college [which helps with the whole Paul Ryan thing]). [link]
Naomi Shihab Nye. [link]
Adrienne Rich. (The poem here [link] I almost used at our wedding, but it's a little *too* intimate to have read in public. Not sexy, just...it kind of guts me. In a good way.)
Maya Angelou.
Oh, Rita Dove has some wonderful stuff.
Lucille Clifton is another good one. And Margaret Atwood wrote some good poetry.
I would look for an anthology, like, say an anthology of 20th century american women poets, which I just made up but probably exists, and get a snippet of all of the above, and then see who you like and go deeper.
Thanks, y'all. I picked up a couple of anthologies at the library, and I'll look for the names above.
Just throwing suggestions out for women poets to read but try - Nikki Giovanni I discovered her in high school, I think one of her poems was reprinted in Ms. Magazine and I read it over and over. Ego Tripping, that's the name of the poem.
Oh and Gwendolyn Brooks.
And even though she was popular in the 30s Elinor Wylie has fallen out of favor but she's always been a favorite poet. I love Sea Lullaby.
The Toast had an article on female beat poets: Elise Cowen: The Female Beat Poet You’ve Never Heard Of.
Oh, I love Lucille Clifton. And Naomi Shihab Nye. Sharon Olds, of course, and Dove, and Rich, and Angelou. A couple of personal favorites are Marge Piercy and Jane Kenyon--those two did a lot to help me survive the late 90s, early oughties--personal epiphany, painful growth and change, etc.
All of these recs are great! A couple I love whom I don’t think have been mentioned: Linda Pastan and Louise Gluck. And Joy Harjo (not as well known; a Native poet with a beautiful style) and Maxine Kumin.
ETA: A great anthology is No More Masks: [link]
Oh my god, yes, Jane Kenyon.