Todd Swift, a Canadian living in Britain, and noted poet in his own right, has recently posted a list of the most influencial or important poets of the last five years over at his blog Eyewear. He cautions that the list is not canonical and will not contain the name of every important poet. He’s also not provided these in a particular order, but will choose the top five, as he sees it, from this list. There are some familiar names here of course, closest to home for me being John Steffler, former poet laureate of Canada. I’m about to start reading his new collection, Look Out, which I’ve been looking forward to very much.
Swift has since posted the top five, which I’ll reproduce here:
1. Geoffrey Hill
2. Fiona Sampson
3. Charles Bernstein
4. PK Page
5. Derek Walcott
The two leaders are from the UK, but good to see PK Page listed here, for all you fans of Canadian poetry.
