Best Poet Portraits

****I love this photo of Albert Goldbarth because it hints as what a lot folks don't realize-- he still types his letters, poems, etc. on a typewriter. He is not electronically connected to anything, no email, nada. I think this portrait captures his softness which many overlook in him.





Randall Jarrell - I love both of these photos because they captured his spirit and his passion for cars. I just look at them and feel happy.

Denise Levertov-- What a beautiful person, inside & out. I think this portrait captures her peacefulness.

William Carlos Williams-- This photo gives me a nostalgia for my own father and I love his expression. This photo is very endearing.

Anne Sexton - The master of the pose. She was a model and incredibly beautiful, so she was to photograph. Someone who reads this blog suggested to me a book of all her last photographs which I purchased. It is seriously difficult to take a bad photo of her. But what I love about this photo is that it captures a time. Cigarette pants, typewriter, cigarette. She was always able to pull things off that others couldn't. I can't imagine how ridiculous I would look posed like this, but her, it looks natural and iconic.

Edna St. Vincent Millay-- When my friend was taking my photo for my first book, I showed her this photo and said I wanted something like this. She came up with this. Which surprisingly, was the first photo I've actually liked of myself. I still like this photo, though as I age, I'm getting farther and farther away from looking like that.

But I think Edna, who could also pose naturally with her hand on her cheek (as could Jane Kenyon) without looking posed, really captures in this photo what I think of poetry-- a poet and the world around them connecting. She becomes the poem in this photo. She is magnolia and woman, background and twig.

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