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Know any good contemporary poets? (i.e. 1950 until present)?

Sania Sanchez is a great contemporary author

Michael White and Scott Owens.  One is a former professor of mine and the other is a colleague.  :)

In reply to #1:

That's quite a broad time frame, but I'll give you a few suggestions. You will find that many modern and contemporary poets belong to certain "schools" - so exploring different poets from different schools may be a good starting point. I've compiled a list of some of the most well-known poets in the period you specified, but part of the fun with contemporary poetry is finding the stuff no-one's heard of! In no particular order...

Elizabeth Bishop ("In the Waiting Room," "One Art")

John Berryman (The Dream Songs)

Robert Lowell ("Dolphin")

James Merrill ("The Broken Home")

Allen Ginsberg ("Howl")

Anne Sexton

Adrienne Rich ("Diving into the Wreck")

Sylvia Plath (Perhaps start with the collection, "Ariel")

Robert Hass

Jorie Graham

Paul Muldoon

Geoffrey Hill

Rita Dove

John Ashbery

Frank O'Hara ("A Step Away From Them," "The Day Lady Died")

I suggest buying an anthology of modern and contemporary poetry: have a dip into it and explore from there.

  five years ago i spoke no english...straight from somalia. it was hard for me to even buy a loaf of bread at a shop in kenya,hard to say thank you,sorry or even help me please. but thanks to my english teacher(a poet) who made me what i am... here i am reading and enjoying poems and literature. ill share my poems with you guys soon...poems of deep sorrow,terrible experiences and hardship. im sure i'll get to learn alot here. peace !

 his name is jermain slim( a lecturer now) . he's not in any of the websites.He writes poems and never publish them. i get to learn from him alot.