last night i went to dinner with ray bianchi and simone muench after ray's reading, and he was lamenting the lack of knowledge of many practicing poets. his thoughts made me think about what might be a mundane question. basically, what should a poet read before becoming a poet and while writing? should we know the classics? and if so, which ones? western? eastern? in-between? should we stick to primarily contemporary classics? or just contemporary writing?
my own writing would suffer if i did not know the gita or the works of homer, dante, li po, whitman, sor juana, neruda, and shakespeare, but i don't want to be prescriptive. what do other poets think is the ideal reading list for future poets?
my own writing would suffer if i did not know the gita or the works of homer, dante, li po, whitman, sor juana, neruda, and shakespeare, but i don't want to be prescriptive. what do other poets think is the ideal reading list for future poets?
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