Donald Hall
One common piece of advice for poets, especially those of us outside of writing programs, is to read as much poetry as you can, from classic to contemporary. I teach a variety of classic poets in my classes, so that part is easier for me– I find that teaching a poem to a class helps me get inside of it better than anything else. I also try to bring in contemporary poetry as often as possible, like a unit I did this fall where we read Metaphysical and Romantic poets, but also response poems written by contemporary authors.
Recently, I’ve read two books of poems by the great Donald Hall, Without: Poems
Hall is often spoken of like Robert Frost, another plainspoken American male poet with ties to New Hampshire. For me as a reader, Hall’s work has an inventiveness and tenderness in these two books that is breathtaking, especially as he writes his way through a sorrow and grief that I cannot imagine. As a poet, I feel like I have a lot to learn from his way of making his language sparse and yet so evocative. It also makes me want to read more of his work, and also of Kenyon’s.
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