A happy New Year to all!
I see that the two nominations, of fantasyfan and Bookpossum, have four votes now, so there is nothing for me to vote on.....
I hope to come up with something before the 5th of january. I'll give you some insight in my quest till now
Spoiler:
As for poetry; in my heart, I would like to examine the great epic poems in this worlds history. A short account of my (so far fruitless) search for a contribution to the poetry of this month's selection for the Literary Book club of Mobile Read.
At first I thought of the great Journey to the West, the Mahabharata, Beowulf and so on. For practical reasons this won’t work…..too long or too recently brought forward, as is the case in the Chanson of Roland.
Then I had a look at the medieval poetry of Europe, for example the story of Reynard The Fox, a satire on contemporary (medieval) society, but this is also too long.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/...eynard-The-Fox
http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=340003
Next the famous Nibelungen Lied, the 12th century tale of the dragon slayer Siegfried, which I can strongly recommend for anyone who has the time to read it. Wagner, the great composer, wrote a cycle of four operas around this epic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibelungenlied
http://www.authorama.com/nibelungenlied-1.html
For the next modern poets I can’t seem to find an (affordable) (e)book:
In the Netherlands there are some great modern poets, for example Lucebert who is known as the great poet/painter of the international Cobra movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucebert
And there is Leo Vroman, a Dutchman and famous hematologist/poet who emigrates to the USA and becomes an American citizen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Vroman
One of the African poets I admire is the South African Ingrid Jonker (1933-1965), who wrote in Afrikaans but is widely translated. She wrote the beautiful Black Butterflies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Jonker
And the Chilean Pablo Neruda. I had the opportunity to visit one of his houses in Chili and that gave me some valuable insights in his poetry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Neruda
I will keep on searching……