In my previous post, I asked people to identify their peers in their chosen art form. (If you haven’t answered that, I’d love it if you would do so…)

I think it’s interesting that the vast majority of people identified their peers as people they knew, from their local scenes. I might have set that off with my own listing.

I should say that I also think of my peers (as I define that) as people like Thomas Lux, Tony Hoagland, Thomas Transtromer, maybe Adrienne Rich — again, I’m not trying to say I write as well as they do, but that in the sense of the territory they work in and the care which they seemingly bring to that work, we’re on the same page.

Now, I want to know who your role models are. To what do you aspire? Not in the sense of “I want to write like (insert name here),” but in the sense of trying to achieve the same goals and level of art that those people reach.

For me, that’s a relatively easy question. I want to hit the same heights as Rilke, Shakespeare, Neruda, Dickinson, Whitman — the dealing with the universal questions of human life and spirituality that excite me beyond belief.

These questions, by the way, are an attempt to look at the scope of artistic vision; who do we admire, emulate, relate to?

I am, eventually, going somewhere with this.

TIA.

Who are your peers as an artist? By peers, I mean those who you see as covering their territories with the same love, attention, and intensity with which you cover your own. Living or dead, people you know or do not…those who work at the same level of intensity toward the quality and impact of the work that you do.

For instance…If I had to identify those I thought of as my peers, I’d be thinking of Sou and Bill Macmillan, Lea Deschesnes and Victor Infante, the gang from louderArts among many others. I think of those people (and many more here on LJ and elsewhere) as my peers in poetry.

Who are yours? If you can guide us to their work if you think we might benefit, go for it — link or post here.

I’m really curious, based on a discussion I’m having with a friend right now. Please answer if you can…love to know.