Poetry and the Masses

[milo]

Who are some living poets that come as close to being interesting and good as all these dead people? Billy Collins isn't dead but he might as well be.

This question always inevitably comes up.  I think people equate being interesting or good to being famous or well known.  My favourite poets always seem to end up being people I get to know.  Maybe i become biased, it is hard to say.
Dale Houstman
Peter J. Ross
Julie Carter
Aidan Tynan
Jim Sheard
Martijn Benders
Colin Ward
Rik roots
George Tolis
Ted Dage
J. Rinier
Tiniap (Kei Miller)
Dennis Hammes
Zinc (actually do not know this guy's name)
Gnarl (Glenn)
recent addition:
Leanne Hanson
I have favourite poems that I keep and treasure from every one of them.  Kei (it seems) was recently invited to Buckingham palace by the queen:
http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.ca/2013...iniap.html
(I actually had an email prose workshop with him, myself and George Tolis)
So you never know, there may be hope yet.

Now that someone resurrected this thread, it reminds me that my old friend Tiniap (Kei Miller) won the Forward Poetry Prize ( http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/se...etry-prize ) which includes the tidy sum of 10,000 English dollar equivalents.  I would recommend reading his work if you get a chance.  i would also recommend befriending poets you like on workshops sites - I workshopped with Kei for several years and even shared an ongoing e-mail dialog in which we criticized each others' fiction (his was superb mine was dreadful)
Anyway, consider this another call out and congratulations to my old friend.