Skip to main content

SOME OF THE POETS WHO HAVE DIED IN 2014

Below, sadly, are the names of some of the poets - writing in all languages, living around the world - who died in 2014.

Most are widely-published, and were beloved figures; a few were more "obscure"; one or two were best known as performance poets. One is a quasi-fictional figure (Mayall).  All were linked to poetry in their obituaries this year.  A few I counted as friends.

Every death is terrible; the death of a poet no more or less than another's, except in how it closes the conversation that poet had with life and the world - from then on, all we have is what they were able to say, to write, to compose, to edit, to erase, to publish, while alive.

Poets are not always the easiest people to love while living - but once they become their words, their books, they become loveable.  Larkin is the best example.

But there are many others.  I wish these poets posthumous readers.  And to their family and friends, students and colleagues, peers and readers, I offer condolences. I also welcome additional entries (though I do not wish for more dead poets) and any information you wish to send me; and of course, corrections.


ALLAN KORNBLUM

ALLEN GROSSMAN

AMIRI BARAKA

ANNE ARDOLINO


BILL KNOTT

CAROLYN KIZER

CLAUDIA EMERSON

DANNIE ABSE


DOUGLAS ISAAC

EMMA LOU THAYNE


FELIX DENNIS

GALWAY KINNELL


GERARD BENSON


IGOR ISAKOVSKI


JOHN ASFOUR

 
JOHN HARTLEY WILLIAMS

JON STALLWORTHY

JUAN GELMAN

KENT MAYNARD

KESHAV CHAND

LILLIAN MORRISON

MAGGIE ESTEP

MAMA BRENDA

MARK STRAND

MAXINE KUMIN

MAYA ANGELOU


NIK BEAT
 
PHYLISS JANOWITZ

RENE RICARD

RIK MAYALL (THE PEOPLE’S POET)

RYOR BARADULIN

SAID AKL

SAMIH AL-QASIM

SEBASTIAN BARKER

Simin Behbahani

SUSAN GRINDLEY


TADEUSZ ROZEWICZ


Tomaž Šalamun
 wENDELL BROWN

ZACCHEUS JACKSON
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....
3 comments
Read more

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".
1 comment
Read more

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise...
1 comment
Read more