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Some great living poets--John Ashbery, Lee Harwood, Tom Raworth, J.H. Prynne & Jeremy Reed, who's "Heartbreak Hotel", a book-length verse celebration of Elvis, is truly special.
Go here: http://people.brunel.ac.uk/~enstaab2/
for some live recordings of Raworth, Harwood and many others.
Of the dead, truly they form an innumerable throng; Ed Dorn, Charles Olson, Friedrich Hoelderlin, Giacomo Leopardi, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé repay the effort. Oh, and Dante Alighieri's not bad.