Langston Hughes
He is the one who has influenced my own personal writing style more than any other writer.
James Baldwin
Baldwin is a very close second to Hughes in influencing my writing.
Pablo Neruda
In my opinion, nobody writes verses as beautifully embellished about love as Neruda does.
Amiri Baraka
I love Baraka for being a major harbinger, if not the prototype poet/playwright, of the Black Arts Movement of the late 60s and early 70s.
Charles Bukowski
Though originally I didn’t dig him that much when I first began writing and reading poetry, I can’t help but say that Bukowski lured me in the more I read by him by keeping me in tune to reality with his blunt truths.
Michael David Saunders Hall is an up and coming, yet seasoned, poet. He is an imagineer of loose leaf poetry.