Poets Giving Me Trouble

[shortstoryfan]

There are a few groups of poets who I don't get. One group seems to be prevalent in bookstores close to college campuses, and are linked in my mind (even if they are not supposed to be). Writers like Kerouac, Bukowski, Ginsberg, O'Hara...do these writers have something in common? I know that some of them are part of the Beat movement. It seems like...lyricism isn't as important to them, and maybe they are more concerned with the philosophical parts of poetry rather than images or musical language?

Then there is another group. I think they are considered experimental poets, and some of them seem to echo the last group with their attention to the philosophical or maybe an attention to the process of writing, the processes of experience the world sensually? Maybe they play with linguistics and social constructs a bit? People like Rae Armantrout, Jorie Graham, Rachel Zucker, Anne Carson.

Maybe someone could help me to understand these poets objectives? I don't think it's a problem of not being able to understand today's poetry, because some of it I understand and appreciate very well, even if it isn't so straightforward, but cannot wrap myself around these poets, and I would like to.

Thanks.

[shortstoryfan]

So, apparently Armantrout is considered part of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets movement. Jorie Graham is considered more part of the establishment. Rachel Zucker, I'm still confused about, and Anne Carson is just a renegade? Still trying to figure all this out.