Other than Wendy Cope, Sophie Hannah, Don Paterson, Ann Drysdale, John Whitworth, and other Sphereans, I don't tend to read a lot of British poets, so I can't speak to trends there. I have a lot of favorite poets that I read often, trying to get my hands on most of their books either through interlibrary loan (free-verse poets) or by purchase (formal poets, who are not carried in most libraries). Among the living free-verse poets I read regularly, I would include Andrew Hudgins, Ron Wallace, Sharon Olds, Louise Glück, Tony Hoagland, Billy Collins, Kim Addonizio, Beth Ann Fennelly, Linda Pastan, Stephen Dunn, Allison Joseph, David Kirby, Philip Dacey, and Leo Dangel (some of these write in form some of the time). I try to keep up with the work of most American formal poets, so that list is even longer. Since Poetry is available online, I look through it occasionally to see if there is anything there that I enjoy. Most of the time I don't like what I see there enough to read more of the author's work. I like work that is understandable, funny, or narrative, or that connects with my emotions or experience in some way. Obviously, I like form and what it can do, but I expect the same things of it in content that I expect of free verse. I accept that my tastes are narrow compared to the tastes of some readers, but I don't have time to read everything, so I head for the kind of work that I know will give me pleasure. I would probably read more contemporary British poetry if I knew it better, but there is not a lot of overlap between British and American journals in terms of what they publish. The contemporary British writers I read, I mainly learned about through Eratosphere.
Susan
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