What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
Dorothy Parker was the first poet to really get me into poetry. Allen Ginsberg convinced me to let go of faux-formalism and solemnity. His poetry really got me experimenting with register, poetic voice, sound and imagery. Then Anne Sexton, in particular her work Transformations, made me fully appreciate the potential of narrative poetry. Finally, reading Audre Lorde lead to the fermentation of my personal poetics. In particular, her work revealed to me the value of writing shamelessly idiosyncratic work that is infused with a unique sense of personality, spirituality, symbolism and so on. Basically, the poetry of Audre Lorde showed me why the most popular model of contemporary poetry, mainly the aphoristic (often generic), purposefully relatable type is one that does not appeal to me, and why I am instead drawn to poetry that is distinct, ambiguous and deeply personal. For those who are interested, I wrote a more detailed essay on this topic, which you can find here: https://www.tuurverheyde.com/post/reading-audre-lorde-in-the-age-of-poetry-as-product
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